THE CHERRY. 117 



they freely "thrive into stately trees, beautiful with 

 blossoms of a surprising whiteness, greatly relieving the 

 sedulous bee, and attracting birds." 1 



In popular mythology the Cherry-tree is, for some un- 

 known reason, associated with the cuckoo. In Germany, 

 " the cuckoo never sings until he has thrice eaten his fill 

 of cherries." In Yorkshire, children were formerly, and 

 perhaps still are, accustomed to sing round a Cherry-tree 

 the following invocation : 



"Cuckoo, cherry-tree, 2 



Come down and tell me 

 How many years I have to live." 



Each child then shook the tree, and the number of cherries 

 which fell betokened the years of its future life. 



The naturalized species of Cherry in Great Britain are 

 the Black and Red-fruited, belonging to the genus Prunus 

 of Linnaeus, Cerasus of Jussieu. 3 Prunus avium, Prunus 

 Cerasus or Cerasus sylvestris, is the Black-fruited Cherry, 

 which, in favourable situations, attains the dimensions of a 

 tree. Its leaves are large, pointed, somewhat drooping, and 

 slightly downy on the under-side. The fruit is small, 

 round, black when ripe, of an insipid bitterish flavour, and 

 containing a stone which is very large in proportion to the 

 size of the fruit. It is known in various districts by the 

 name of Gean (a corruption of Guignes\ Merries (from 

 merisier, said to be derived from amere, bitter, and cerise, 

 cherry), Corone, or Coroun (from corone, a crow, in allusion 

 to its blackness), Black-heart, &c. 



Those botanists who are of opinion that Luculius only 

 introduced new kinds of Cherries into Europe, consider 

 this species a native, and not without reason ; for it grows 



1 Evelyn's Stjlva. 



2 A popular nursery rhyme begins with the same words. 



3 Cerasus may be distinguished from Prunus, by its leaves being 

 conduplicate, or folded tog 'ther in their young state, instead of being 

 convolute or rolled together ; and by the fruit being always desti- 

 tute of the bloom which characterises all the varieties of Plum. 



