THE DWAEF CHERRIES 235 



the genesis of garden forms. And yet even here, 

 upon the very threshold of their introduction into 

 domestic gardens, we shall find certain points which 

 can be understood or explained only by inference. 



These dwarf cherries are the American congeners 

 of the ground or dwarf cherry of Europe and north- 

 ern Asia, which is known as Primus Chamcecerasus, 

 and which is in cultivation in this country for orna- 

 ment. This European plant is so like our own that 

 it has received the name of Primus pumila which is 

 the American plant from nurserymen who have been 

 instrumental in disseminating it. There are two 

 species of dwarf cherry which are concerned in this 

 contemporaneous evolution, but only one of them 

 seems to promise much under domestication. These 

 are the sand cherry (Primus pumila, Fig. 38), and 

 the western dwarf cherry (Primus Besseyi, Fig. 39). 

 The history of this dwarf cherry group was first writ- 

 ten by the present author less than four years ago 

 ("The Native Dwarf Cherries;" Bulletin 70 of the 

 Cornell Experiment Station), and it was upon that 

 occasion that the western plant was separated from 

 the eastern plant, and designated as Prunus Besseyi, 

 in compliment to Professor Charles E. Bessey, of the 

 University of Nebraska, who has often called attention 

 to the merits of the fruit. 



Of these two cherries, the better known to bota- 

 nists is the common dwarf or sand cherry of the East, 

 Primus pumila, which grows chiefly upon sandy and 

 rocky shores from northern Maine to the District of 

 Columbia and northwestward to Lake of the Woods. 

 It is abundant among the Great Lakes, where it often 

 grows in drifting sand. The plant is strictly erect 



