68 OTJR COMMON FEUITS. 



nical name Cerasus is derived, was a city on the borders 

 of the Black Sea. They still linger lovingly in the region 

 which is looked on as their native place ; for Dr. Walsh 

 described the gardens on the W. coast of Asia Minor, 

 as consisting wholly of cherry plantations, into which 

 strangers may enter freely and eat as many as they please, 

 being only required to pay about \d. per Ib. for any 

 which they may wish to take away with them. The trees 

 are of enormous size, but are exceeded in this respect by 

 another variety, growing in the woods in the interior of 

 the country, which were from 90 to 100 ft. high. 



All the numerous varieties of cherries which now exist, 

 and among which it can no longer be told which was the 

 first improved Mithridatic one, are traced back to two wild 

 types, the one red and sour, the other black and bitter ; 

 the former being called by the French Cerisiers, and the 

 other Meritiers, a contraction of Cerises ameres, still fur- 

 ther contracted by English provincials into "Merries," 

 or sometimes Guigniers, anglicized into " Geans," while 

 the same admirable methodizers to whom we are indebted 

 for these distinctive appellations further divide the culti- 

 vated kind into the firm-fleshed Bigarreaux, from bigarrd, 

 parti-coloured, these fruits being ^generally variegated 

 with red and yellow ; and the tender-fleshed Griottiers, 

 formerly Agriottiers, from aigreur, sourness. It has been 

 doubted whether the Cerisier be really an indigenous 

 growth of Europe, for even in Erance it is only in the 

 vicinity of human habitations that it is found wild ; but 

 the indubitably native Merisier, growing in the woods as 

 tall as oaks or beeches, with horizontal branches, and 

 bearing fruits more or less bitter, abounds more perhaps 

 than any other fruit-tree. It was so highly prized as sup- 

 plying food for the poor, that in 1669 a law was passed 

 for the special protection of all the cherry-trees in the 

 royal forests, till, left thus unchecked, they multiplied to 

 such an extent, that there would soon have been little 

 room left for anything else, when, with a rush to the 

 other extreme, a new edict was promulgated command- 

 ing all the rapidly rising race to be ruthlessly destroyed, 

 except a select number of saplings reserved to secure 



