CHERRY. 107 



woods and hedgerows in May, at which time it is too 

 conspicuous to be overlooked. Its flowers are large, 

 pure white, and very numerous, so that the whole shrub or 

 tree is a mass of white, and may be seen a mile away. 

 The leaves are large, deeply veined and serrated, and but 

 few in number during; the flowering-season. The blossoms 

 are borne on stems about an inch and a half or two inches 

 long, in groups of some three or four; these spring in 

 a clustered arrangement from the little groups of leafy 

 scales that are given out at intervals from the stems. 

 The petals and sepals are each five in number, and on the 

 expansion of the blossom the calyx is thrown boldly back 

 on the stem, in much the same way that we see it in 

 the bulbous crowfoot, a plant we have elsewhere figured. 

 The stamens form a conspicuous yellow mass in the centre of 

 the flower. The fruit is globular and smooth, and though 

 edible by birds and boys, has a bitter taste that makes it 

 very inferior to the cultivated kinds. The gum which 

 exudes from the wild cherry is equal to gum arabic, and 

 the wood is hard and tough, taking a good polish and 

 having a grain that makes it sought after by the turner 

 and cabinet-maker. Besides the ordinary employment 

 of cherries in cookery and as a dessert fruit, they are 

 largely used on the Continent for distillation. Kirschen- 

 wasser is a spirit obtained from the fruit and kernels, and 

 noyau, ratafia, and maraschino all owe more or less of 

 their potency and flavour to the same fruit. 



The Romans are known to have cultivated eight kinds 

 of cherries, while Tusser, in his delightfully quaint " Five 

 Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie," first published in 

 1573, mentions only " cherries black and red," together with 

 "damisens, respis, filbeards, boollesse," and several other 



