THE CHERRY] 373 



of our gardeners to bud or graft the cherry exclusively on 

 the suckers of the hautbois cherry (Prunus Cerasus var. 

 Caproniana) as above mentioned. This stock produces 

 trees of fine size, but requires a soil of stiff and clayey 

 nature to thrive well, and hence all attempts to grow the 

 cherry on this stock in the red light porous soils of 

 certain hilly districts have been almost always attended 

 with failure. For these red porous soils the cultivated 

 cherry should be budded or grafted on the Mahaleb 

 cherry which was introduced for use as stock in these 

 Islands by the writer in 1908, with vqry good results. 

 On the Mahaleb stock the cherry attains a fair size and 

 is very productive, and its cultivation becomes possible 

 even on dry soils, provided that they are properly 

 manured and that the situation is well sheltered. More- 

 over on this stock the cherry grows with great vigour 

 and is much less liable to suffer from gumming which 

 so frequently kills the cherry grown on the hautbois 

 stock. Even for stiff and clayey soils, on account of the 

 heat and drought of this climate, the Mahaleb stock is 

 always preferable to that of the hautbois cherry, although 

 of course for moist and very cool situations this last has 

 its own advantages. 



The cherry tree both when in bloom and when the 

 ripening fruit is hanging in clusters is very picturesque 

 and ornamental, and the fruit is always welcome on the 

 table not only on account of its pretty appearance and 

 its earliness, but also for its intrinsic value as a desirable 

 article of dessert consumed either crude or cooked. The 

 fruit of the bigarreau cherries (Italian = d#raM) keeps 

 well and travels well for long distances, and other sorts 

 are used in continental Europe for the preparation of 

 various liqueurs. 



PROPAGATION. The seeds or stones may be collected 

 as soon as the fruit is ripe and stratified in a box or pan 

 with a mixture of leaf-mould and sand. They may be 

 sown as soon as they are collected from the tree, that is 



