Descriptions of Select Varieties of Cherries. 395 



should hav& commenced our article sooner ; but, as om* object 

 is to enumerate them only so far as we can do so with perfect 

 accuracy, we have deferred it until our own trees have come 

 into bearing. "We have now nearly one hundred specimen 

 trees, of about as many sorts, which we have received from 

 all the best sources, both at home and abroad, and as they 

 have commenced fruiting this year, we are enabled to 

 give an account of them with the specimens before us. 



The late Mr. Manning, in an excellent paper in a previous 

 volume, (VIII. p. 281,) and one of the last which he ever 

 wrote, has given a brief synopsis of forty-four kmds, includ- 

 ing several seedlings, which he had fruited in his collection. 

 Our object will be to give the descriptions in detail, with the 

 habi's and general character of the trees, together with out- 

 line engravings of the varieties enumerated, and we hope they 

 m^y be the means of aiding the amateur in clearing up the 

 confusion hi the nomenclature of this fine fruit. 



Nothing, it seems to us, could more impress an individual 

 with the importance of a careful selection of the best kinds 

 of fruit when planting a garden, or an orchard, than an in- 

 spection of our market during the cherry season. First, let 

 him look at any of our pomological works, and then at the 

 catalogues of our most extensive nurseries, and he will find 

 there enumerated some sixty or eighty sorts all characterized 

 from " fair to prime;" then let him, and, if he pleases, with 

 catalogue in hand, walk through our market and examine the 

 fruit. What does he find ? Why, with three or four excep- 

 tions, if, from the limited quantity, they can so be called, he 

 does not meet with one of the varieties. The May Duke, 

 Sparliawk's Honey, Downer's Late Red, a few Tartarians, 

 and a few Bigarreaus, to the amount of some bushels, may 

 be seen ; but the named sorts do not amount to one tenth of 

 the supply. The Downton, the Elton, the Black Eagle, the 

 Waterloo, the Florence, and other equally delicious sorts, in- 

 troduced twenty-five years ago, are not seen, and indeed 

 scarcely known. The whole stock is mazzards, and even poor 

 at that, for we have seen very fine mazzards better worthy of 

 a name than some which have received a high-sounding title. 



And why all this neglect? Are not the fine sorts to be ob- 

 tained 1 Or, are seedlings good enough. Undoubtedly, until 



