692 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PARTY III. 
ourselves to consider as distinct species. Numerous as are the cultivated fruit-bearing varieties of 
the common plum, it is clear that they might be increased ad injinitum ; and it is also highly pro- 
bable, that numerous varieties, with fruits totally different from those of the original species, might 
be procured by cultivating the North American species, P. maritima and P. pubéscens ; if, indeed, 
these are anything more than varieties of P. doméstica. There are two forms, which every descrip- 
tion of tree seems capable of sporting into, which are yet wanting in the genus Prinus, as at present 
limited ; the one is with branches pendent, and the other with branches erect and fastigiate. There 
can be no doubt but that an endless number of hybrids, varying in their leaves, blossoms, and fruit, 
might be produced by fecundating the blossoms of the plum with the pollen of the almond, the peach, 
the apricot, and the cherry ; and, though some may be disposed to assign little value to these kinds 
of productions, yet it must not be forgotten that almost all the cultivated plants of most value to 
man have been produced by some kind of artificial process. Experiments of this kind, therefore, 
ought never to be discouraged. What culture has done we know: but what it may yet accomplish 
is concealed in the womb of time. 
Genus V. 

CE’/RASUS Juss. Tur Cuerry. Lin. Syst. Icosandria Monogynia. 
Identification. Juss. Gen., 340.; Dec. Fl. Fr., 4. p.479.; Prod., 2. p. 535. ; Don’s Mill., 2. p. 504. 
Synonymes. Cérasus and Laurocérasus Tourn. ; Prinus sp. Lin.; Cerisier, Fr. ; Kirsche, Ger. 
Derivation. From Cerasus, the ancient name of a town of Pontus in Asia, whence the cultivated 
cherry was first brought to Rome, by Lucullus, a Roman General, 68 B. c. 
Description, §c. Trees and shrubs, almost all deciduous, with smooth ser- 
rated leaves, and white flowers; and, generally, with light-coloured bark ; 
natives of Europe, Asia, and North America. Some of them are cultivated 
for their fruit, and the others as ornamental. In British nurseries, they are 
generally propagated by grafting or budding on the Cérasus sylvéstris: they 
will grow in any common soil that is tolerably dry; and the price in European 
and American nurseries is, with a few exceptions, the same as that of common 
fruit trees. There is much confusion in all the species, more particularly as 
regards those which are natives of North America; and which, as Dr. Hooker 
judiciously observes, can only be “ removed by carefully studying the plants 
in a living state, both during the season of the blossom and that of the fruit.” 
(Fl. Bor. Amer.,i. p. 167.) 
§ i. Ceraséphora Dec. The Cherry-bearing Kinds. 
Sect. Char. Flowers produced from buds upon shoots not of the same year ; 
and,in many instances, disposed umbellately. Leaves deciduous. 
A. Species cultivated for their Fruit. 
The Cherries cultivated in Gardens, according to Linneus (L. Pat, in Sp. Pi., 
and L. Fil. in Mant.) and almost all botanists to the time of De Candolle, 
have been referred to Prinus avium Z. and Prinus Cérasus L. (both, in 
our opinion, only varied forms of one species) ; the former being the mérisier of 
the French, and corresponding with the small wild black bitter cherry of the 
English (the C. sylvéstris of Ray); and the latter the cerisier of the French, 
and corresponding with the common red sour cherry of the English (the C. 
vulgaris of Miller). To these two species De Candolle, in the Flore Francaise, 
has added two others: Cérasus Juliana, which he considers as including the gui- 
gniers ; and Cérasus duracina, under which he includes the bigarreaus, or hard 
cherries. Under each of these four species, Seringe,in De Candolle’s Pro- 
dromus, has arranged a number of varieties, with definitions to each group; 
but, as neither the species nor the groups appear to us distinct, we have 
adopted the arrangement of the author of the article on Cérasus in the Nouveau 
Du Hamel, as much more simple and satisfactory ; and have referred all the 
cultivated varieties to the same species as Linnzeus; substituting for Primus 
avium L., Cérasus sylvéstris, the synon. of Ray; and for Prinus Cérasus L., 
Cérasus vulgaris, already used to designate the same species in Mill. Dict., and 
