THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 121 



Buds large, long, conical, plump, free, in clusters on spurs variable in length; leaf- 

 scars very prominent; season of bloom intermediate; flowers one and one-fotirth inches 

 across, white ; borne in dense clusters, thickly distributed over the tree in twos and threes ; 

 pedicels one inch long, slender, glabrous, green; calyx- tube green, broadly campanulate, 

 glabrous; calyx-lobes tinged with red, broad, obtuse, glabrous within and without, reflexed; 

 petals roimdish, entire, with a shallow notch at the apex; filaments one-quarter inch long; 

 pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length. 



Fruit matures early; nearly one inch in diameter, roundish-cordate, sHghtly com- 

 pressed; cavity regular, abrupt; suture indistinct; apex blunt-pointed or slightly depressed; 

 color pale amber faintly mottled with red; dots smaU, light yellow, inconspicuous; stem 

 slender, one and one-half inches long, adherent to the fruit; skin thin, of medium tough- 

 ness, separating from the pulp; flesh pale yellow, with colorless juice, tender, meaty, mild, 

 sweet; good to very good in quality; stone semi-free or free, one-half inch long, less than 

 one-half inch wide, roimdish, somewhat flattened, blunt, with smooth surfaces; ridged 

 along the ventral suture. 



DIKEMAN 



Pr units avium 

 I. Del. Sta. Bui. 35:16, 17 fig. 1897. 



Dikeman has some merit as a very late Sweet Cherry but here its use- 

 fulness ends. The cherries are too small and the pits too large for this 

 variety to have great worth. The tree is somewhat remarkable for its 

 spreading habit and stout branches. Plant-breeders seeking for a very 

 late sort might well choose Dikeman as a parent. 



Two very similar cherries, with a variation in the spelling, pass under 

 this name. Late in the Eighteenth Century there appeared a cherry on 

 the Dyckman farm near New York City. Some thought it to be identical 

 with Black Tartarian; others said it was distinct and called it Dyckman. 

 It was never more than of local note. Some few years ago the late S. D. 

 Willard of Geneva introduced the Dikeman cherry from the farm of George 

 B. Dikeman, Oceana County, Michigan. This variety often goes under 

 the name Dykeman but from the information at hand we feel certain that 

 Dikeman is the correct spelling. On our grounds this variety and Black 

 Tartarian, although similar ^ are two distinct sorts, the Dikeman being 

 later, firmer and a clingstone. 



Tree large, vigorous, broadly-spreading, open-topped, productive; trunk and branches 

 thick, smooth; branches reddish-brown covered with ash-gray, with numerous lenticels 

 which are variable in size; branchlets short, brown, partly covered with ash-gray, smooth, 

 glabrous, with inconspicuous, slightly raised lenticels. 



Leaves nimierous, four and one-half inches long, two and one-foiu-th inches wide, 

 folded upward, obovate to long-elliptical, thin; upper surface medium green, slightly rugose; 



