THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK l6l 



LYONS 



Primus avium 



Bigarreau de Lyon. I. Mag. Hort. 16:358. 1850. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 61, 62 fig. 1854. 



Bigarreau Jaboulay. 3. Hogg Fruit Man. 74. 1866. 4. MortiUet Le Cerisier 2:100 fig. 20, loi. 

 1866. S. MasLe Verger Buy, 18, fig. 7- 1866-73. 6. Pom. France 7: No. 16, PI. 16. 1871. 7. Leroy 

 Did. Pom. 5:213 fig., 214. 1877. 8. Flor. Sf Pom. 117. 1878. 



Early Lyons. 9. Flor. & Pom. 193, fig- l- l875- lO- Hogg Fruit Man. 294, 295. 1884. 



Early Jaboulay. n. Hogg Fruit Man. 294. 1884. 



Of the one hundred and twenty-five cherries tested on the grounds 

 of this Station during the past ten years, Lyons is one of the best. Though 

 grown for nearly a century in Europe it seems never to have been well 

 tried in America probably because it has not been considered particularly 

 valuable in the Old World. From its behavior at this Station it appears 

 to deserve extensive trial as an extra early market cherry for dessert 

 purposes, as it is one of the few tender-fleshed cherries that give promise 

 of standing handling for distant markets. Though commonly classed as 

 a hard-fleshed Bigarreau it is really an intermediate between the firm-of- 

 flesh cherries and the soft-fleshed Hearts. In the tree it is a typical Bigar- 

 reau. Besides being one of the earliest of the Heart-like cherries it is one 

 of the largest, handsomest and best flavored. Unfortunately, because of 

 an accident, we cannot show a color-plate of this splendid cherry. On 

 these grounds the tree-characters are about all that could be desired, 

 though we are making allowance for a slight lack of productiveness in the 

 young tree which is one of the faults commonly attributed to Lyons by 

 European writers; however, all agree that the trees become fruitful with age. 

 The blossoms of this variety are conspicuously large and showy, with 

 pistils unusual in being longer than the stamens. The merits of Lyons 

 have been so pronounced in the several years we have watched it that we 

 feel quite warranted in recommending it for both home and commercial 

 orchards. 



About 1822, M. Jaboulay, a ntirseryman at OuUins, near Lyons, France, 

 grafted over a number of seedling cherries which had sprung up on his 

 grounds. Five years later, having decided to dig out the trees, he was 

 attracted by the superb growth made by one of them upon which the graft 

 had not started and ordered the tree to be saved. This tree produced a 

 full crop of exceedingly large and attractive fruit which matured far in 

 advance of other varieties. Jaboulay decided to save all the grafts for 

 propagation the succeeding year but found upon going to the tree the fol- 



