122 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
As a tree the wild Cherry is valuable not only for its timber, but for the food 
which it supplies to birds, by the increase of which little creatures the insects which 
attack trees and grain of every kind are destroyed. The folly which would exterminate 
these feathered friends, grudging them a share of the abundance of an orchard, is well 
repaid by a plague of insects of every kind which devastate whole acres of cultivated 
land, and destroy far more than an army of little birds would require to refresh and 
gladden us with their sweet songs, as well as to rid us of the swarms of insects which 
without their aid are so sure to multiply and infest our gardens and orchards. On the 
Continent Cherry-trees are much used as roadside trees, particularly in the north of 
Germany, where the apple and the pear will not thrive. In some countries the road 
passes for miles through an avenue of Cherry-trees ; and Loudon tells us that he tra- 
velled for several days through an avenue of Cherry-trees from Strasburg by a circuitous 
route to Munich. These avenues in Germany are planted by desire of the respective 
governments, not only to shade the traveller, but to afford him refreshment on his 
journey. All persons are allowed to partake of the Cherries, on condition of their not 
injuring the trees ; and when it is desired by the proprietor of the land on which they 
grow to retain the fruit of any particular tree, the fact is notified by tying a wisp of 
straw on one of the conspicuous branches ; and this indication is almost universally 
respected. 
The Cherry-tree has always been a favourite with poets and lovers of song. The 
whiteness and profusion of the blossoms, the rich bright colour of the fruit, and the 
vigorous nature of its growth, are all sources of attraction. The old English song of 
“Cherry ripe” is familiar to us all, and had its origin in one by Herrick. In Cam- 
bridgeshire, at Ely, when the Cherries are ripe, numbers of people repair, on what they 
call Cherry Sunday, to the Cherry-orchards in the neighbourhood, where, on the pay- 
ment of sixpence each, every one is allowed to eat as many Cherries as they choose. A 
similar féte is held at Montmorency. A like festival is also annually held at Ham- 
burg, called the Feast of Cherries, during which troops of children parade the street 
with green boughs ornamented with Cherries. The origin of the /¢te seems to have been 
thus :—In 1432, when the city of Hamburg was besieged by the Hussites, one of the 
citizens, named Wolf, proposed that all the children in the city between seven and 
fourteen years of age should be clad in mourning and sent as suppliants to the enemy. 
Procopius Nasus, chief of the Hussites, was so moved by this spectacle, that he not only 
promised to spare the city, but regaled the young suppliants with Cherries and other 
fruits, and the children returned crowned with leaves, shouting “ Victory,” and holding 
boughs laden with Cherries in their hands. 
SPECIES III—PRUNUS CERASUS. Linn. 
Puate CCCCXIT. 
Lromfield, Fl. Vect. p. 144. 
A bushy shrub, producing very numerous suckers. Leaves 
firm, erect, oval or obovate-oblong, rather gradually acuminate or 
acuminate-cuspidate at the apex, very irregularly crenate-serrate 
on the ‘margins, at length nearly glabrous. Umbels mostly scat- 
tered, fastigiate, surrounded by scales, of which the inner ones 
become leaf-like. Calyx-tube bellshaped-obconical, not contracted 
