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PR a 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



PR U 



above the bud, close down to the back part of it, that the 

 stock may be covered by the bud. If these trees be designed 

 for a wall, place the bud directly from the wall, that the 

 back part of the stock which is cut may be hidden. The 

 sorts commonly planted against walls are, the Early May 

 and May Duke, which require a south aspect. The Hearts 

 and Common Duke will thrive on a west wall ; and in order 

 to continue the Duke later in the season, they are frequently 

 placed against west and north-west walls, where they will 

 succeed very well. The Morello is generally placed on a 

 north wall. The Hearts are seldom planted against walls, 

 not being good bearers, though probably that defect might 

 be removed if they were grafted on the Bird Cherry, and 

 properly managed. The Bird Cherry stock is said to render 

 Cherries very fruitful, producing the same effect upon them 

 as the Paradise stock does upon Apples : so that it is worth 

 while to make the experiment. Some persons graft the Ddke 

 and other sorts of Cherries upon the Morello, which is but 

 a weak shooter, in order to check the luxuriant growth of 

 their trees, which will succeed for three or four years, but 

 they are not of long duration, nor will they make shoots 

 above six or eight inches long; being closely covered with 

 blossoms, they may produce some fruit in a small compass : 

 but such experiments cannot succeed for general use, and 

 only serve to satisfy curiosity; and it is much better to allow 

 the tree a greater share of room against the walls, when one 

 tree so planted, and properly managed, will produce more 

 fruit than twenty of these trees, or twice that number, when 

 they are planted too close, though they are grafted upon the 

 Black Cherry or any other free-stock. Cherry-trees standing 

 against the wall should be at least twenty or twenty-four feet 

 asunder, with a standard tree between each dwarf, for they 

 will extend themselves as far or farther than Apricots, and 

 many other sorts of fruit. In the orchards of Kent, the usual 

 distance allowed for them is forty feet square, at which 

 space they are less subject to blight than when they are 

 planted closer; and the ground may be tilled between them 

 almost as well as if it were entirely clear, especially whilst 

 the trees are young ; and the often stirring the ground, pro- 

 vided the roots be not disturbed, will greatly help the trees; 

 but when they are grown so large as to overshadow the 

 ground, the drip of their leaves will suffer nothing to live 

 underneath. The best orchard sorts are, the Common R.ed 

 or Kentish Cherry, the Duke, and the Lukeward ; all of which 

 are plentiful bearers. In pruning these trees, the shoots 

 should never be shortened, for most of them produce their 

 fruit-buds at their extreme part, which by shortening are cut 

 off, and occasions the death of the shoot: their branches should 

 therefore be trained in at full length horizontally, observing 

 in May, where there is a vacancy in the wall, to stop some 

 strong adjoining branches, which will occasion their putting 

 out two or more shoots; by which means at that season of 

 the year there may always be a supply of wood for covering 

 the wall ; at the same time displace all fore-right shoots by 

 the hand, for if suffered to grow till winter they will not 

 only deprive the bearing branches of their proper supply of 

 nourishment, but occasion the tree to gum when cut out: 

 for no sort of fruit-tree bears the knife worse than Cherry. 

 In displacing the fore-right shoots, take care not to rub off the 

 sides or spurs which are produced upon the two or three years 

 old wood ; for it is upon these that the greatest part of the fruit 

 is produced, and they will continue fruitful for several years. 

 Ignorance or neglect of this caution renders Cherry trees, 

 especially the Morello, so often unfruitful, for the more they 

 are cut the weaker are their shoots. The soil that these 

 trees thrive best in U a fresh hazel loam; if it be a dry gravel, 



they will not live many years, and will be perpetually blighted 

 in the spring. The Double-flowering Cherry is propagated 

 by budding or grafting on the Black or Wild Cherry stock ; 

 and the trees are very proper to intermix with flowering 

 trees of a second growth. The flowers are as large and 

 double as a Cinnamon Rose, and being produced in large 

 bunches on every part of the tree, render it one of the most 

 beautiful trees of the spring. Some of the flowers which are 

 less double often produce fruit, which is not the case with 

 the double flowers. 



17. Prunus Avium; Small-fruited Cherry Tree, Umbels 

 sessile ; leaves ovate-lanceolate, pubescent underneath, folded 

 together. This grows to be a large tree fit for timber, and 

 is frequently found in woods. From this, the only varieties 

 ever raised by seeds are, the Black Coroun and the Small Wild 

 Cherry, of which there are two or three varieties, differing 

 in the size and colour of their fruit. The first sort is much 

 cultivated in the Chiltern part of Buckinghamshire, and 

 makes a beautiful appearance in the spring, when the trees 

 are in blossom at the same time that the Beech is leafing. 

 In Suffolk it abounds about Polstead.and from that is called 

 the Polstead Cherry: in that county the Wild Cherries are 

 called Merries, from the French Merise. The Corone, Coroun, 

 or Crown Cherry, which is the highest improvement of this 

 sort, is common in Hertfordshire, and about Bergh-Apton 

 in Norfolk. The Black Cherry tree grows to a considerable 

 height ; Evelyn mentions one above eighty-five feet : when it 

 attains that size, the timber, especially the redder sort, is fit 

 to make stools, chairs, tables, and cabinets, as it will polish 

 well, and is also very fit for pipes and musical instruments. 

 In spring when in flower they are very ornamental in parks, 

 the fruit is also food for birds, and the wood is useful for 

 turners. They will thrive in poor land better than most 

 other sorts. The stones are generally sown for raising stocks 

 to graft or bud other Cherries upon, being of quicker growth 

 and of longer duration. It is seldom grafted or budded. 

 Where persons are curious to have the best-flavoured of this 

 sort of fruit, they certainly may graft from such as produce 

 the best. They are always trained as standards; the Coroun 

 for the orchard, and the Small Wild Black and Red for park 

 plantations. 



18. Prunus Pennsylvanica ; Pennsylvanian or Upright 

 Cherry Tree. Umbels subsessile, aggregate, and many-flow- 

 ered, at length panicle-shaped; leaves oblong, lanceolate, 

 acuminate, smooth, glandular at the base. It flowers in 

 May. Native of North America. 



19. Primus Nigra; Canadian Black Cherry Tree. Um- 

 bels sessile, solitary, few-flowered ; leaves deciduous, ovate, 

 acuminate ; petioles biglandular. It flowers in April and 

 May. Native of Canada. 



20. Prunus Domestica ; Common Plum Tree. Peduncles 

 subsolitary; leaves lanceolate-ovate, convoluted; branches 

 without thorns. This is a middling-sized tree, growing gene- 

 rally from sixteen to twenty-five feet, and branching into a 

 moderately spreading head. The leaves are on short stalks, 

 ovate, serrated, smooth, the younger ones downy; the flowers 

 are white, generally on solitary stalks ; the fruit, of a dark blue 

 or purple colour, mostly elliptical or obovate. It loves a lofty 

 exposure, and is not injurious to pasturage. The cultivated 

 garden Plums are derived from this species, which is a native of 

 Asia and Europe, but not of Great Britain; for though it is 

 not uncommon in our hedges, the plants found there probably 

 originated from some of the cultivated species, which, accord- 

 ing to Pliny, came from Syria into Greece, and thence into 

 Italy. The varieties of garden and orchard Plums are very 

 numerous, differing in the form, taste, colour, and substance 



