CHEEBY EIPE. 9 



writer to suggest that if a few trees of this kind were 

 planted in all cherry orchards the moths and butterflies 

 in the neighbourhood would deposit their eggs upon them, 

 and though the poor scapegoats would soon present a 

 hideous appearance, the other trees would be quite safe. 



The most noted variety of the Bird Cherry is the Ma- 

 lialeeb, or perfumed kind, every part of which exhales a 

 powerful scent, something like that of the clematis, that 

 of the blossoms being so excessive as to be insupportable 

 in a room. It specially abounds in Champagne in France, 

 and, flourishing in the poorest soil, where nothing else 

 could grow, gives value to large tracts of land which would 

 otherwise be worthless. The leaves are used, either fresh 

 or dried, to feed cattle, and are also put into dead game, 

 to impart a flavour to the flesh. The wood, which is- 

 brown, beautifully veined, and susceptible of a fine polish, 

 is much sought after by cabinet makers for ornamental 

 work, and is sometimes burned for the sake of the per- 

 fume it sends forth while consuming ; while the hard 

 shining berries are strung as beads to form bracelets, &c., 

 the "cunning perfumers" of two centuries ago bartering 

 them for John Bull's gold, as imposingly as though that 

 respectable old gentleman had been a mere Indian savage, 

 for they were "sold to our curious ladies and gentle- 

 women for rare and strange pomanders, for great sums of 

 money." The timber of the Virginian Bird Cherry rivals 

 mahogany in beauty, and is much used in America for 

 furniture ; but in England trees of any of the species are 

 only planted for ornament, or to attract singing birds to 

 shrubberies. 



The cherry claims the honour of near kindred with the 

 tree of Apollo, being closely related, as the name indicates, 

 to the Lauro-cerasus family, including both the common 

 and the Portugal laurel ; and though doubt has some- 

 times been cast on the assertion of Cowley, when, re- 

 counting the triumphs achieved by man in the vegetable 

 kingdom, he adduces as a crowning exploit, 



"Ev'n Daphne's coyness he does mock, 

 And weds the Cherry to her stock ! " 



experiment has proved that the alliance is quite possible,. 



