The Cherry. 75 



the sylvestris is that which the French call m'erisier* 

 The same occurs in England, producing " merries," fruits 

 larger than those of the normal form, sweet, and deep 

 black instead of red, sometimes very pale, so that in 

 Cheshire the last-named is called the '-'white merry." 

 In Hampshire the merries are collected for sale. They 

 are the earliest of the fruits that ripen in England to 

 make their appearance in the markets. The blossom of 

 the merry is finer and larger, and rather later than that of 

 the typical sylvestris. The leaves are shorter and the 

 clusters are not so large, and the peduncles, also, are 

 shorter. The "geans" of the northern counties appear 

 to be much the same. This name, also, is French, 

 representing the Norman gutgne, a word which seems to 

 have been originally gutsne. 



The second form, named by Miller Cerasus vulgaris^ 

 the ceVisier of the French, is a plant of very different 

 habit, often a mere shrub of six or eight feet in height, 

 fond of the sunny borders of woods and glades, and 

 especially attached to grassy slopes, which it some- 

 times covers with dense thicket. This comes of the 

 abundance of the suckers thrown up from the spreading 

 roots or rhizomes the sylvestris, it will be remembered, 

 has no suckers. Another great distinction is that the 

 flesh of the fruit, which is sour or bitter, separates readily 

 from the stone. The original habitations appear to have 

 been much the same, the most ancient extending from 



* The etymology of this word is obscure. Dr. Prior says it is 

 "from mericea, adjective of merica, a berry mentioned by Pliny." 



