THE EARLY PURPLE GUIGNE CHERRY. 



EARLY PURPLE GUIGNE. Horticultural Transactions, vol. viii. pi. 4. 



EARLY PURPLE GRIOTTK, Hurt. Soc. Catakgue, 3d Ed. 1842. 



IT is somewhat surprising that a cherry, possessing such valuable 

 qualities as the Early Purple Guigne, should not have become much 

 better known, and far more extensively cultivated in American collections. 

 It was introduced into the garden of the London Horticultural Society 

 in 1822, and in 1830 a full account of it, by Mr. R. Thompson, was 

 published in its Transactions, accompanied with a beautiful colored figure 

 of the fruit. As the history of so fine a variety will be interesting to 

 every pomologist, we copy the following from Mr. Thompson's account : 



" This variety is probably of recent origin on the continent, and its 

 early introduction to this country by the Horticultural Society was en- 

 tirely accidental, it having been received in a collection from M. De 

 Candolle, of Geneva, in 1822, under the name of the Griotte de Chaux, 

 which is a late cherry, of the nature of a Morello. This being the 

 case, and its foreign name not having been found, it was temporarily 

 called, in the garden, the Early Purple Griotte, under which name it has 

 since been distributed. 



Writers are much divided, on the continent, with regard to those 

 principal divisions of cherries of which the Griottiers form one, and 

 among which the sort for which this was sent ought to have ranked, 

 but with which it clearly does not agree. The Griottiers were formerly 

 written Agriottiers, probably from the sharpness of their juice, a 

 quality which prevails more or less in all of them. The Morello tribe 

 is included in that division, along with other slender wooded varieties, 

 in all of which the petioles of the leaves are short and erect, compared 

 with those of other kinds of cherries. 



In none of these peculiarities does the Early Purple Guigne accord 

 with the Griotte tribe. Its habit is very different ; the petioles of its 

 leaves, instead of being short, are remarkably long and slender, and 

 consequently the leaves are drooping. But with another division, 

 called by the French Guigniers, a very different tribe from our northern 

 Geans, it agrees in every respect. 



That this sort is highly deserving of cultivation, being the earliest 

 yet known, will appear best by comparing it with the May Duke and 

 Early May, grown in similar situations ; the former is quite green, the 

 latter is barely ripe when this is in full perfection. It may be said 

 to be about a fortnight earlier than the May Duke, and to be fully equal 

 to it in quality." 



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