THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 1 37 



Buds large, long, pointed, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds and on very 

 short spurs variable in size; leaf -scars prominent; mid-season in blooming; flowers one 

 and one-half inches across, white; borne in twos and threes; pedicels one inch long, slender, 

 glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes tinged with 

 red, long, broad, acute, serrate, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals roundish, 

 entire, nearly sessile, with a shallow notch at the apex; filaments about one-half inch long; 

 pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens. 



Fruit matures early; about one inch long, three-fourths inch wide, cordate to conical, 

 somewhat compressed and oblique; cavity rather abrupt, regular; suture indistinct; apex 

 distinctly pointed; color dark red with an amber tinge, faintly mottled; dots numerous, 

 small, light yellow, obscure; stem slender, one and three-fourths inches long; skin thin, ten- 

 der, separating from the pulp ; flesh white with a tinge of yellow, with colorless juice, sHghtly 

 stringy, tender, very mild, sweet; of good quality; stone free except along the ventral 

 suture, one-half itich long, long-ovate, slightly flattened, with smooth surfaces; some- 

 what ridged along the ventral suture. 



EMPRESS EUGENIE 



Primus avium X Prunus cerasus 



I. Card. Mon. 7:277. 1865. 2. Mortillet Le Cerisier 2:159 fig. 41, 160. 1866. 3. Mas Le Verger 

 8:5, 6, fig. I. 1866-73. 4- Pom. France 7: No. 10, PI. 10. 1871. 5. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 383. 1875. 

 6. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 20. 1877. 7. Leroy Diet. Pom. 5:348 fig., 349. 1877. 8. Hogg Fruit Man. 

 296, 297. 1884. 9. Gaucher Pom. Prak. Obst. No. 78, PL 29. 1894. 



Eugenie. 10. Ant. Pom. Soc. Cat. 22. 1883. 



This old French cherry, for many years largely advertised and widely 

 sold in America, does not thrive in the New World as well as the reports 

 say it does in the Old World. The two faults that condemn it, as it grows 

 here, are that the cherries ripen very unevenly making several pickings 

 necessary and the trees are so small that, though loaded with fruit, the 

 total yield is not large. Lesser faults are that the cherries are not uniform 

 in shape and are borne thickly in close clusters so that when brown-rot is 

 rife this variety suffers greatly. The short stem, too, prevents easy picking. 

 To offset these faults Empress Eugenie has to its credit the reputation of 

 being about the most refreshing and delicious Duke. In a home plantation 

 where the unevenness in ripening can be utilized to prolong the season and 

 where dwarfness may not be undesirable, Empress Eugenie may well find 

 a place. 



This cherry appeared in 1845 as a chance seedling on the grounds of 

 M. Varenne at Belleville, near Paris, France. It first fruited about 1850 

 and four years later the Horticultural Society of Paris placed it, under 

 the name Imperatrice Eugenie, on its list of recommended fruits. M. A. 

 Gontier, a nurseryman at Fontenay-aux-Roses introduced it to commerce 



