708 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART f1l,. 
25 ft. or 30ft.; averaging a rate of growth from 1 ft. to 18 in. annually for the 
first 10 years. 
Geography, History, §c. It is found wild in the middle and south of 
France, the south of Germany, Austria, Piedmont, and in Crim Tartary ; and 
it was found by Pallas in abundance on Mount Caucasus, where it differed 
from the European variety in the leaves and flowers coming out together, 
and in the leaves being more cordate and acuminate. The tree is very general 
in France, particularly in the mountainous districts. It is very common in 
the neighbourhood of Ste. Lucie, whence its name of bois de Ste. Lucie. 
Trees of it are sometimes found, in that neighbourhood, with trunks 4 ft. in 
circumference. The tree is very generally cultivated in England, as an orna- 
mental plant. It was introduced in 1714, but was known long before, from 
the circumstance, as Gerard informs us, of “the cunning French perfumers 
making bracelets, chains, and such like trifling toys, of the fruit, which they 
send into England, smeared over with some old sweet compound or other, 
and here sell unto our curious old ladies and gentlewomen, for rare and strange 
pome-ambers [scented balls], for great sums of money.” (Johnson’s Gerard.) 
Properties and Uses. The wood of the mahaleb is hard, brown, veined, 
and susceptible of a high polish. Its smell is less powerful, and more agree- 
able, when it is dry, than when the sap is in it. In a dry state it weighs 59 lb. 
40z. per cubic foot. In France, it is much sought after by cabinetmakers, 
on account of its fragrance, hardness, and the fine polish which it receives ; 
and it is sold by them green, in thin veneers, because in that state it does not 
crack, or, at least, the slits, or chinks, are less perceptible. In the Vosges, in 
the neighbourhood of the Abbey of Ste. Lucie, a great deal of this wood is 
sold to turners, and for the manufacture of tobacco-pipes and snuff-boxes. 
In Lorraine, the wood of the mahaleb is often confounded with that of the 
C. Padus; and the latter, also a handsome wood, is often sold for the former. 
The leaves are powerfully fragrant, more particularly when dried: they are 
greedily eaten by cattle and sheep, and they are used for giving flavour to game. - 
The kernel of the nut is employed by perfumers to scent soap. The wood 
is highly prized as fuel, on account of the fragrance which it sends forth when 
burning; on which account it was planted, in many parts of France, by the 
ancient nobility, as undergrowth. It was also, for the same reason, planted 
as hedges. One of the principal uses in which the plant is at present em- 
ployed in France is, as a stock on which to graft the different kinds of fruit- 
bearing cherries ; for which it has the advantages of growing on a very poor 
soil; of coming into sap 15 days later than the common wild cherry, by 
which means the grafting season is prolonged; and, lastly, of dwarfing the 
plants grafted on it. In British gardens, it is partly used for this purpose, 
but principally as an ornamental shrub or low tree. As in the case of other 
dwarf species of a genus which will unite to a tall robust-growing species, 
the mahaleb, when grafted on the common wild cherry (C. sylvéstris), grows 
to a larger tree than when on its own roots, 
Soil, Situation, §c. The mahaleb will grow in any poor soil that is dry, 
even in the most arid sands and naked chalks; and, as it forms a low bushy 
tree which is capable of resisting the wind, it may be planted in an exposed 
situation. When young plants are to be raised from seed, the fruit is sown 
as soon as ripe, or preserved among sand till the following spring, in the same 
manner as that of the cherry. (See p. 700.) Seedling plants generally grow 
1 ft. in length the first year, and from 1ft. to 18in. the second year. The 
tree may also be propagated by layers, by slips from the stool, taken off with 
a few roots attached, and by suckers, or by cuttings from the roots. 
Statistics. There are trees of Cérasus Makdleb at Syon, and some other places in the neighbour- 
hood of London, upwards of 20 ft. high. In Ireland, at Kilkenny, in Woodstock Park, there is one 
22 ft. high, with a trunk 1 ft. 4in. in diameter. In France, at Paris, in the Jardin des Plantes, a 
tree, 40 years planted, is 40 ft. high, the diameter of the trunk 17 in., and of the head 42 ft. ; at 
Avranches, in the Botanic Garden, 30 years planted, it is 25ft. high. In the London nurseries, seed- 
lings, from 1 ft. to2ft. high, are 20s. per hundred ; and large plants, trom 1s to Is, fd. each, At 
-Bollwyller they are 50 cents each, 

