THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 3 1 



PRUNUS AVIUM X PRUNUS CERASUS 



The Duke cherries, long placed by most pomologists and botanists 

 in a botanical variety of Primus avium, are unquestionably hybrids between 

 the Sweet Cherry and the Sour Cherry. A study of the characters of 

 the varieties of the Duke cherries shows all gradations between Prunus 

 cerasus and Prunus avium, though, in the main, they resemble the latter 

 more than the former, differing from the Sweet Cherries most noticeably 

 in having an acid flesh. Sterility is a common attribute of hybridism. 

 In this respect the Dukes behave like most hybrids. In several Duke 

 cherries all of the seeds collected at this Station are sterile; in others, most 

 of them are sterile and in none are the seeds as fertile as in varieties 

 known to be pure bred as to species. So, too, shrunken pollen grains 

 indicate hybridity. A study of the pollen of the Duke cherries shows 

 many grains, the greater proportion, to be abnormal, a condition not 

 found in the pollen of varieties true to species. May Duke, Reine Hortense 

 and Late Duke are the leading hybrid varieties. 



There are dark colored Diike cherries with reddish juice and light 

 colored sorts with uncolored juice, just as in the two parent species. May 

 Duke is a typical variety with colored juice while Reine Hortense is 

 probably the best-known cherry among these hybrids with uncolored juice. 

 About 65 of the cherries listed in The Cherries of New York are "Dukes," 

 or hybrids between the Sweet and the Soiir Cherry. 



The name Duke comes from the variety May Duke which is a cor- 

 ruption of Medoc, a district in the department of Geronde, France, from 

 whence this variety came. The cherries of this group are known as Dukes 

 only in England; in France the name Royale is similarily used. 



These hybrid cherries have been placed in a distinct botanical group 

 by several botanists. They constitute the Cerasus regalis Poiteau and 

 Turpin {Trait e des Arb. Fruit. 123); the Cerasus higarella regalis Roemer 

 {Syn. Monogr. 3:69); and the Prunus avium regalis Bailey {Cyc. Am. 

 Ilort. 1453. 1901). 



PRUNXrS MAHALEB Linnaeus. 

 I. Linnaeus Sp. PI. 474. 1753. 2. Bailey Cyc. Am. Horl. 3:1451. 1901. 3. Schneider Handb. 

 Laubh. 1:617. 1906. 



Cerasus mahaleb. 4. Miller Card. Diet. ed. 8: No. 4. 1759. 

 Padus mahaleb. 5. Borkhausen Handb. Forstb. 2:1434. 1803. 



Tree small, slender, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped; branches roughened, 

 ash-gray over reddish -brown ; branchlets numerous, slender and firm-wooded, with short 

 intemodes, dull gray, glabrous, with very numerous large, raised lenticels. 



