34 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 



where except in East Norfolk, Hunts, and only in Hereford, Warwick, 

 and Salop in the Severn district; in Wales in Brecon, Pembroke, 

 Cardigan, Carnarvon, Denbigh, and Anglesea. Elsewhere it is found 

 in Leicester, Chester, Mid, West, and N.W. Yorks, Westmorland, and 

 Cumberland. It is wild or well-established south of Yorkshire. It is 

 rare in Ireland and the Channel Islands. Watson regards this with 

 some hesitation as indigenous. The Wild Cherry, however, is a feature 

 in some woodlands, notably in the south, where it occurs with other 

 sylvan trees, such as Lime, Holly, White Beam, Mountain Ash, Way- 

 faring Tree, Elm, Oak, Beech, Aspen, and others. 



This is an erect, branched tree, with shortly stalked, egg-shaped, 

 lancelike leaves, which are smooth, dark bluish-green, spreading in two 

 series in bud, scalloped, and toothed. The flowers are in shortly 

 stalked umbels or clusters, the buds having rough outer margins, 

 white, the petals blunt above, nearly erect, and the corolla is cup- 

 shaped, the calyx-tube not narrowed from side to side. 



The petals have a short claw, and have a slight notch at the end. 

 The fruit is globose, black or red, acidic and staining. 



The Wild Cherry Tree is distinguished by its lesser stature. The 

 height is rarely more than 5-8 ft. The tree flowers in April and May. 

 It is a deciduous tree, increased by grafting. It is evergreen in Ceylon, 

 and in S. Europe retains its leaves some time. 



Anthers and stigmas ripen together, and spread far apart away 

 from the centre of the flower. The stigmas overtop the inner stamens, 

 but are only on a level with the outer stamens. In some plants the 

 anthers are ripe first. The flowers last a week. If insects touch the 

 stigmas and anthers with different parts of the body when they seek 

 for honey cross-pollination may result. Insects collecting or feeding 

 on pollen or honey indiscriminately cross- or self-pollinate the plant. 

 When the flowers are oblique pollen may fall from the taller stamens 

 upon the stigma. The Wild Cherry is visited by the Honey Bee, 

 Bombus, Osmia rufa, Andrena, Rhingia, Eristalis, and Lepidoptera, 

 such as Large White (Pieris brassiccz), Small White (P. rapa), 

 Green-veined White (P. napi). 



The fruit is an edible, bright-coloured, ovary wall or drupe, with a 

 soft outer coat, luscious when ripe, and dispersed by birds, man, &c. 



The Wild Cherry is more or less a sand plant requiring a sandy 

 loam, but also a lime soil and humus to a slight degree. 



The Garden Cherry is subjected to numerous ravages by fungi and 

 insects, e.g. Exoascus^ Podosphcsra^ Gnomonia, Plowrightia, Sclerotinia, 

 Puccinia, Entomosporium, Corynum, Fusicladium, Cladosporium, Cerio- 



