178 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



Buds small, short, usually obtuse, plump, free, arranged as lateral buds and in small 

 clusters on short spurs; leaf -scars prominent; season of bloom medium; flowers one inch 

 across, white; borne in scattering clusters, in twos and threes; pedicels five-eighths of 

 an inch long, rather slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green with a faint tinge of 

 red, obconic, glabrous ; calyx-lobes with a trace of red, rather long, serrate, glabrous within 

 and without, reflexed; petals obovate, entire, nearly sessile, apex entire; filaments one- 

 fourth inch long; pistil glabrous, nearly equal in length to the stamens. 



Fruit matures verj' late; nearly three-fourths of an inch in diameter, roundish to 

 slightly oblate, compressed; cavity very shallow and narrow, flaring; suture indistinct; 

 apex roundish with a small depression at the center; color very dark red approaching 

 black; dots ntmierous, small, dark russet, inconspicuous; stem slender, one and one-fourth 

 inches long, but slightly adherent to the fruit; skin thin, tender, separating readily from 

 the pulp; flesh dark red, ^\'ith much very dark colored juice, tender and melting, sprightly, 

 tart, losing its astringency when fully ripe; of fair quality; stone free, nearly one-half inch 

 in diameter, rotmdish-oblate, somewhat pointed, with smooth surfaces slightly stained 

 with red. 



OX HEART 



Prunus avium 



I. Miller Card. Kat. 154. 1734. 2. Christ Hand*. 663. 1797. 3. Brookshaw ii'or/. Reposit. 1:36, 

 PI. 18 fig. 2. 1817. 4. Coxe Cull. Fr. Trees 249. 1817. 5. Truchsess-Heim Kirschensort. 132-135. 

 1819. 6. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 176. 1845. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 244. 1858. 8. Mas Pom. Gen. 

 11:57, 58, fig. 29. 1882. 9. Oberdieck Obsl-Sorl. 365, 366. 1882. 10. Mathieu Norn. Pom. 339, 371. 

 1889. 



Bigarreau Gros Commun. 11. Mag. Horl. 9:203. 1843. 



Ox Heart is very commonly used as a class name for the large, meaty 

 varieties of cherries which are cordate in shape. In America the name is 

 most often given to the light-fleshed cherries, such as Yellow Spanish, 

 Napoleon or White Bigarreau. At one time, however, the name was 

 applied to a distinct variety known throughout England, Germany and 

 America, being first mentioned by Miller, an Englishman, in 1734. Coxe, 

 in 1 817, was the first American writer to list the variety but it never 

 became popular in the New World. Ox Heart appeared among the fruits 

 rejected by the American Pomological Society in 1858 and from then on 

 it gradually gave way to better varieties. The synonyms of the true Ox 

 Heart are badly confused not only with other dark-fleshed varieties but 

 with those of the Yellow Spanish type. As some of these varieties are 

 merely listed while others have but a meager description, it is impossible 

 to separate or group them with any degree of certainty. In the 1909 

 catalog of the American Pomological Society there appears an Ox Heart 

 of American origin and of recent introduction, known in the West as Major 

 Francis. There are also in several ntirsery catalogs a " white-fleshed Ox 



