WILD CHERRY-TREE. 255 
winds." It is also said to thrive best when unmixed with other trees; and suf- 
fers the grass to grow beneath its shade. 
Propagation and Culture. The Cerasus sylvestris, whether grown for stocks 
for grafting upon, or for planting out with a view to produce timber, is almost 
always propagated from seeds ; but, as the roots throw up an abundance of 
suckers, stools might be formed, and treated like those of the plum ; or, cuttings 
of the roots might be employed for the same purpose. When plants are to be 
raised from seeds, Mr. Loudon recommends that the cherries should be gathered 
when ripe, and either be sown immediately, with the flesh on, incurring the risk 
of their being eaten by birds or vermin, especially mice, during the autumn and 
winter ; or, what is preferable, they may be mixed with four times their bulk of 
sand, and kept in a shed or cellar, being turned over frequently, till the time 
arrives for sowing. As soon as the ground is sufficiently open, in the winter or 
spring, they may be sown in beds, and covered to the depth of one-half to three- 
fourths of an inch, with light mould. Great care must be observed that the seeds 
do not sprout while in the heap ; because, unlike the horse-chesnut, the acorn, 
and the seeds of some other fruits, the cherry expands its cotyledons at the same 
time that it protrudes its radicle ; and when both are developed before sowing, 
the probability is, that the germinated seeds will not live ; for the cotyledons, in 
sowing, are unavoidably covered with soil, whereas nature intended them to be 
exposed to the light. The strongest plants, at the end of the first season, will be 
eighteen inches or more in height, and may be drawn out from among the others, 
and transplanted into nursery lines ; and, after they have stood there a year, 
they may be grafted or budded.^ 
The cherry-tree, whether in a young or old state, requires but a very little 
pruning, and the knife should only be used for the removal of a second leading 
shoot, or an over-rampant branch. Whenever this becomes necessary, let it be 
performed in the month of August or September, or at least, at a period when the 
leaves are fully expanded, "a rule which holds good," says Mr. Selby, in his 
treatise on 'British Forest Trees,' "and ought to be observed in regard to all 
deciduous trees;" for, it has been found by experience that, when pruned in the 
summer season, they are not liable to bleed or exude their gum, and as the sap 
begins to elaborate, new wood is formed at the edges of the wounded parts, and 
by the time of the fall of the leaf, the injuries will be so far recovered as to be 
out of danger of decay, from the lodgment of wet, or the influences of the 
weather. 
According to some experiments made by Mr. Selby, no tree bears transplanting 
when of considerable size, better than the gean. He removed with success plants 
from twenty to thirty feet in height, some of which had originated from suckers, 
and others from seeds. As in the case of all trees that he had removed, of a large 
size, they suffered a check by the operation, but from this they generally recovered 
in the course of two, or at most, three seasons. 
Accidents, Diseases, Sfc. The foliage of the gean is seldom attacked by insects 
or their larva?, though it is sometimes disfigured by the caterpillars of several spe- 
cies of Geometridse ; and the extremities of the young shoots are often preyed 
upon by a large, black louse (Aphis cerasi) ; but the fruit-bearing varieties of 
the cherry, like most other cultivated trees, seem more subject to injury from 
insects, than those in a wild state. 
Properties and Uses. The wood of the wild cherry-tree is of a reddish col- 
our, of a firm, strong texture, and close-grain, yet sufficiently soft to be easily 
worked, and is susceptible of a fine polish. When green, it is nearly of the same 
specific gravity of water, and when dry, a cubic foot weighs about fifty-five 
* See Loudon's Arboretum Britannicum, ii., p. 700 
