THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 203 



do not come up to the trees in points of superiority. They are rather 

 smaller than those of Napoleon, the greatest competitor of Yellow Spanish, 

 and are more subject to attacks of brown-rot than several others of the 

 Bigarreaus. As may be seen by comparing the color-plates, however, 

 Yellow Spanish is rather the handsomer of the two cherries, the crimson 

 color being more evenly distributed and the skin not having the mottled 

 appearance of Napoleon. In quality Yellow Spanish is the better of the 

 two, having tenderer flesh and a sweeter and richer flavor. Yellow Spanish 

 is notable in the nursery for its strong, upright growth and its large leaves, 

 the leaves of no other cherry attaining so great a size. In blossoming 

 time the variety may be distinguished by the whiteness of the blossoms 

 as they open and a reddish tint as they drop. It is a mid-season cherry, 

 ripening after Wood and a few days before Napoleon. Despite the great 

 age of the variety it still remains one of the best, furnishing proof, by the 

 way, that varieties of cherries do not degenerate with age. In New York 

 Yellow Spanish cannot be spared from either home or commercial plantings. 



YeUow Spanish is so old and so widely disseminated that its origin 

 can only be conjectured. From the name we naturally infer a Spanish 

 nativity and yet it is almost equally well known as Bigarreau, a word of 

 French derivation. Under the last name French pomologists believe that 

 they trace its history to the First Century of the Christian Era as the 

 variety described by Pliny under the name Cerasum Duracinum. The 

 Germans and Austrians certainly knew this variety in the Eighteenth 

 Century and probably much earlier, an inference to be drawn from the 

 references given. Parkinson, the English herbalist, described a cherry in 

 1629 which he called the Biguarre Cherrie which later came to be known 

 as the Bigarreau or Graffion by English writers and which we now know 

 to be Yellow Spanish. Seven years later Gerarde described a Spanish 

 cherry the description of which is not unlike our Yellow Spanish. Miller 

 and Forsyth, English writers, also at an early date described a Spanish 

 cherry which may be the fruit of this discussion. 



Fortunately we are well informed as to the history of Yellow Spanish 

 in America. Prince, one of the most acciirate of American pomologists, 

 in 1832, gave the following historical account of the Grafifion, or Yellow 

 Spanish: " This tree was imported from London by the father of the 

 author, in the year 1802, vmder the name Yellow Spanish, and one of the 

 original trees is now growing in his garden, where it produces abundantly, 

 and there is little doubt that from his stock have originated most of the 



