l80 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



France as its home and Larose as its originator is here accepted as authentic. 

 M. Larose of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Seine, a gardener of the imperial court, 

 grew the original tree early in the Nineteenth Centviry from a seed of the 

 Cerise Larose, a seedling of his introduction. Soon after the first mention 

 of this variety, about 1841, there appeared the Louis XVIII, Morestin, 

 Guigne de Petit-Brie and several others. The variety was seemingly 

 rechristened by every nurseryman who got hold of it. At one time the 

 name Monstreuse de Bavay was acceptable to many, it having been given 

 to the variety by a Mr. Bavay of Vilvorde, Brabant, Belgium, about 1826. 

 The theory that Reine Hortense comes true to seed and therefore has 

 several strains has been discredited. The American Pomological Society 

 recognized Reine Hortense in 1856, only a few years after being intro- 

 duced into this country, by placing it on the recommended fruit list. In 

 1909, the Society shortened the name from Reine Hortense to Hortense 

 but in this text we prefer to use the full name, thereby indicating clearly 

 the person for whom the cherry was christened. 



Tree of medium size, upright-spreading, productive; tnmk shaggy; branches smooth, 

 dark reddish-brown covered with ash-gray, with a few large lenticels; branchlets rather 

 slender, with short intemodes, brown partly overspread with ash-gray, smooth, with 

 inconspicuous, raised lenticels. 



Leaves numerous, four and one-half inches long, two and one-half inches wide, folded 

 upward, oval to obovate, thin; upper surface dark green, rugose; lower surface light green, 

 pubescent along the midrib; apex taper-pointed, base abrupt; margin coarsely serrate, 

 with dark glands; petiole one inch long, tinged with red, pubescent along the grooved 

 upper surface, with none or with from one to four small, globose, greenish-yellow or 

 brownish glands, usually at the base of the blade. 



Buds large, long-pointed, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds and in small 

 clusters on few long spurs; blooms appearing in mid-season; flowers white, one and one- 

 fourth inches across; borne in dense clusters usually in threes; pedicels one inch long, 

 slender, glabrous; calyx-tube with a tinge of red, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes long, 

 acuminate, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals roundish, entire, sessile, with 

 entire apex; filaments one-fourth of an inch long; pistil glabrous, shorter than the stamens. 



Fruit matiures in mid-season; nearly one inch in diameter, oblong-conic to obtuse- 

 conic, compressed; cavity somewhat shallow, narrow, abrupt, often lipped; suture indis- 

 tinct; apex roundish with a small depression at the center; color amber-red; dots numerous, 

 light russet, conspicuous; stem tortuous, slender, one and one-half inches long, adherent 

 to the fruit; skin tender, separating from the pulp; flesh pale yellow, with colorless juice, 

 tender and melting, sprightly subacid; of very good quality; stone free, rather large, oblong 

 to oval, flattened, blunt, with smooth surfaces. 



