218 ROSACEA 



conquest. A hundred and twenty years after, this tree was grown in Britain. 

 That the fruit was well known in early times in this country is CAddcnt, from 

 lines in Gower's " Prologue " : — 



" And so hope cometh in at laste, 

 When I none other foode knows, 

 And that endureth but a throws, 

 Right as it were a cherie feste :" 



while near the same early period we find Chaucer describing a garden thus : — 



" And manie homely trees were there, 

 That peches, coines, and aples here ; 

 Medlers, plominis, peres, chesteineis, 

 Cherise, of which nianie one faire is ; 

 Notis, and aleis, and Lolas, 

 That for to sene it was solas ; 

 With manie high laurer and pine. 

 Was ranged clene all that gardine, 

 With cipris and with oliveris. 

 Of which that nigh no plenty here is." 



Our Gean Cherry is, by many writers, termed Prunus cerasics, or Cerasus 

 vulgaris, but the former name is now more generally applied to the Morello 

 Cherry. Various kinds of Cherry are largely grown on the Continent, and 

 Cherries are associated there with many common proverbs and old legends. 

 The German says, that the cuckoo never sings till he has thrice eaten his fill 

 of cherries ; but if so, the bird must have made his meals on the half-ripened 

 fruit, unless his first song is later in the year than in our country. There 

 are legends which tell how our Saviour gave a cherry to St. Peter, and with 

 the fruit gave, too, a gentle counsel not to scorn small things ; but we for- 

 bear to put faith in tale or legend connected with Him of whose life and 

 words we know so little, save that which has been taught in Holy Writ. 

 Even yet, however, an annual festival at Hamburgh tells of an interesting 

 incident which occurred in connection with cherries. This is called the 

 Feast of the Cherries ; and on this occasion, little children walk about the 

 .streets carrying boughs, from whose green leaves glisten the ruby fruits. It 

 is an old observance, and one which tells of a touching story. In the year 

 1432, the Hussites were planted in battle array around the city of Ham- 

 burgh, threatening its immediate destruction, when one of the citizens, 

 named Wolf, proposed that all the children from seven to fourteen years of 

 age should be clad in mourning, and sent out to plead with the enemy. The 

 chief of the Hussites, Procopius Nasus, had human sympathies, and the sight 

 of these innocent and helpless beings perchance reminded him of loved and 

 innocent ones far from the scene of danger. To the honour of the warrior, 

 his heart forbade all resistance to the appeal, and, promising to spare the 

 city, he sent l;)ack the children, after having regaled them with cherries. 

 With loud shouts of victory, the happy Imnd returned homewards, crowned 

 with green leaves of the tree, and waving in their hands the boughs laden 

 with cherries. Long before Shakspere had expressed the truth, the thought- 

 ful man had discovered, that — 



" One touch of nature makes the whole M'oild kin." 



The Romans possessed only eight varieties of Cherry; but upwards of 



