190 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



cherries are quite too small and the pits altogether too large for a com- 

 mercial product. The tree is upright-spreading, with numerous thick 

 branches over which the cherries are rather thickly scattered in ones, twos 

 and threes and never in clusters. The fruit-stems are characteristically 

 long and slender. Though of the Bigarreau group the flesh is too tender 

 to well withstand harvesting, shipping and the brown-rot. 



This cherry was introduced by Edward Sparhawk, for whom it was 

 named, of Brighton, Massachusetts. The variety has been known under 

 a number of different names, the number being no measiore of its merit, 

 however, for it has never been extensively cultivated. The American 

 Pomological Society placed it in its fruit catalog list of recommended 

 varieties in 1862 but dropped it in 1871 and for many years but httle 

 attention has been given it. It is now for sale in but few of the nurseries 

 of the country. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright, rather open-topped, hardy, unproductive; trunk stocky, 

 slightly shaggy; branches thick; branchlets medium in thickness and length; leaves 

 numerous, five inches long, two and one-fourth inches wide, long-oval to obovate, thin, 

 mediimi green; margin coarsely and doubly serrate, glandular; petiole two inches long, thick, 

 overlaid with red, with one or two large, reniform, reddish glands on the stalk; buds inter- 

 mediate in size and length; season of bloom intermediate, average length five days; flowers 

 one and one-fourth inches across; pistil shorter than the stamens. 



Fruit matures in mid-season, average length about nineteen days; nearly seven-eighths 

 inch in diameter, somewhat conical, compressed; color dark red over a yellowish back- 

 ground, finely mottled; stem of medium thickness, one and three-eighths inches long, 

 adherent to the fruit; skin thin, tough, separates from the pulp; flesh pale yellowish-white, 

 with colorless juice, tender, crisp, highly flavored, mild, aromatic, sweet; very good in 

 quality; stone nearly free, large for the size of the fruit, ovate, flattened, slightly oblique, 



with smooth surfaces. 



SPATE AMARELLE 



Prunns cerasus 



I. Christ Handb. 679. 1797. 2. Christ W'or/eri. 294. 1802. 3. Tmchsess-Keim Kirschensorl. 62()- 

 632. 1819. 4. DochnaU Fuhr. Obslkunde 3-<^7,('^- 1858. 5. I!!. Handb. 541 dg.. 542. 1861. 6. Mas 

 Le Verger 8:149, 150, fig. 73. 1866-73. 7. Lauche Dent. Pom. HI: No. 24, PI. 1882. 8. Am. Card. 

 9:264. 1888. 9. la. Sla. Bid. 2:36. 1888. 10. Del. Sta. An. Rpt. 12:126, 127. 1900. 



Spate Morello. 11. la. Ilort. Soc. Rpt. 78. 1890. 12. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:282, 283. 



1903 



This is another variety with Amarelle fruit and a Morello-like tree 

 and is unquestionably a hybrid between varieties of the two groups. Sev- 

 eral references from the Middle West mention Spate Amarelle as very 

 promising but in New York, where such sorts as Early Richmond and 

 the Montmorencies thrive, it is unpromising for any purpose. The cherries 



