THE CHERRY. 311 



in the Pomolop^lcal Mag'azine not to be surpassed in 

 richness of flavour, beauty, and other good qualities, 

 by any, is curious in its oni>;in. The parent tree was 

 purcliased in the market ot" New York, some time in 

 the end of lust century. It remained barren several 

 years, till, during; a violent thunder-storm, the whole 

 trunk was struck to the earth and destroyed. The 

 root afterwards threw out a number of \igorous 

 shoots, all of which were allowed to remain, and 

 finally produced fruit. It is, therefore, to be pre- 

 sumed that (he stock of the barren kind was the 

 parent of this. Trees were sent to Mr. Robert 

 Barclay, of Bury Hill, in 1819; and in 1821 several 

 others were sent to the Horticultural Society by Dr. 

 Hosack. 



The Cherry— Pnmus Cerasus. 



The Cherry is a native of most temperate coun- 

 tries of the northern hemisphere. The small black 

 is found not only in some parts of England, but even 

 in places among the Scottish mountains, where it 

 would be difficult to imagine them to have been car- 

 ried. It is generally said that the first of the present 

 cultivated sorts was introduced about the time of 

 Henry VIII., and were originally planted at Sitting- 

 bourn, in Kent. The cherry-orchards of Kent are still 

 celebrated. It seems, however, that they were known 

 much earlier, or, at any rate, that cherries were 

 hawked about London before the middle of the six- 

 teenth century, in the very same manner as at 

 present. The conwnencement of the season was 

 announced by one carrying a bough or twig loaded 

 with the fruit. Our present popular song of " Cherry 

 ripe, ripe I cry," is very slightly altered from Her- 

 rick, a poet of the time of Charles I. One of our 

 old English games, cherry-pit, consisted of pitching 



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