THE CHERRY-TREE. 99 



small tree with which all are familiar from their frequent 

 disappointment on attempting to eat its frnit. Its prom- 

 ises to the sight are not fulfilled to the taste. Though 

 of an agreeable flavor, it is exceedingly harsh and as- 

 tringent. This is a more beautiful tree when in flower 

 than the black cherry, though it is generally a mere shrub, 

 never rising above fifteen or twenty feet in height. The 

 racemes, when in flower, are not drooping, as they are 

 when laden with fruit, but stand out at right angles with 

 the branch, completely surrounding it, and giving to every 

 slender twig the appearance of a long white plume. In 

 the eastern part of Massachusetts I have found this spe- 

 cies, as well as the black cherry, in old graveyards, so 

 frequently, indeed, that in my early days these trees were 

 associated with graves, as the Lombardy poplar is with 

 ancient avenues. I suppose their frequency in these 

 places to be caused by the birds dropping the seeds at 

 the foot of the gravestones, where they quickly germi- 

 nate, and are protected, when growing, by the stone be- 

 side them. 



The cultivation of the Gean, or Great Northern Cherry 

 of Europe, which was named by Linnaeus the bird cherry, 

 is encouraged in Great Britain and on the Continent of 

 Europe for the benefit of the birds, which are regarded as 

 the most important checks to the over-multiplication of 

 insects. The fact, not yet understood in America, that 

 the birds which are the most mischievous as consumers 

 of fruit are the most useful as destroyers of insects, is 

 well known by all the farmers in Europe ; and while 

 we destroy the birds to save the fruit, and sometimes cut 

 down the fruit-trees to starve the birds, the Europeans 

 more wisely plant them for their sustenance and accom- 

 modation. 



