THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 1 35 



pointed." It is not known when or how Elkhorn got to America. The first 

 cherry -grower in this country to mention it was WilHam Prince, in 1832, 

 who says that his father noticed the variety growing in a garden next to 

 a hotel in Maryland about 1 797 and brought cions of it to New York after- 

 wards propagating and selling it under the name Elkhorn given to the 

 cherry by the hotel proprietor. Elkhorn was at one time very popular 

 and well disseminated throughout the United States and is sold now by a 

 large nimiber of nurserymen either under the name Tradescant's Black 

 Heart or as Elkhorn. In 1862, the American Pomological Society listed 

 in its fruit catalog Tradescant's Black Heart but dropped it in 1877. In 

 1899 this Society placed the variety in its catalog under the name Elkhorn 

 and it still remains on its list of recommended fruits. From its history 

 it is apparent that this cherry is rightly called Tradescant or Black Heart 

 or by some combination of these terms but Elkhorn has been adopted by 

 the American Pomological Society, is everywhere in common use on this 

 continent and is so distinctive that we choose for this text the newer name. 



Tree large, very vigorous, upright, open-topped, moderately productive; trunk stocky, 

 smooth; branches stout, smooth, with numerous small lenticels, reddish-brown heavily 

 overspread Vi-ith ash-gray; branchlets thick. 



Leaves numerous, three and three-fourths inches long, two and one-fourth inches 

 wide, short-oval to obovate, thin; upper surface medivun green, roughish; lower surface 

 dull, light green, hghtly pubescent; apex acute; margin coarsely serrate, glandular; petiole 

 with from one to three raised glands of mediiun size, variable in shape, usually on the 

 stalk. 



Fruit matures in late mid-season; tliree-fourths of an inch in diameter, cordate to 

 conical, slightly compressed; cavity deep, wide, flaring; suture indistinct; ape.x roundish 

 or pointed, with a slight depression at the center; color purplish-black; dots numerous, 

 small, dark russet, inconspicuous; stem one and three-eighths inches long, adhering to 

 the fruit; skin thin, tender, adhering somewhat to the pulp; flesh a characteristically dark 

 purplish-red, with very dark colored juice, meaty, firm, crisp, mild, sweet; of good quality; 

 stone semi-free, ovate, flattened, slightly pointed, with smooth surfaces, tinged with red. 



ELTON 



Prunus avium 



t. Land. Horl.Soc. Cat. 4g. 1831. 2. Vrince Pom. Man. 2:121, 122. 1832. 3. Pom. il/ag. 2:92, P, 

 1839. 4. Downing fr. Trees rim. 186 fig. 77. 1845. $. Proc. Nat. Con. Fr. Cr. 52. 1848. 6. Am. Pom. 

 Soc. Rpt. 75. 1850. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 54. 1852. 8. Elliott Fr. Book 194 fig. 1854. 9. Thompson 

 Card. Ass't 528. 1859. 10. ///. Handb. 105 fig., 106. i860. 11. Mortillet Le Cerisier 2:91 fig. 17, 92, 

 93. 1866. 12. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 463 fig. 1869. 13. Leroy Diet. Pom. 5:196, 197 fig. 1877. 



Flesh Coloured Bigarreaii. 14. Prince Pom. Man. 2:128. 1832. 15. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 182 

 fig. 74. 1845. 16. Leroy Diet. Pom. 5:192, 193 fig. 1877. 



