C030I OX CHE J. 1 1 - 7 7 1 1 2 '" i 
years, and acquires a spherical head, eight or ten feet in height, and ten or 
twelve feet in diameter, with the extremities of the branches drooping to the 
ground, flowering and fruiting during almost the whole summer. 
Geography and History. The Cerasus vulgar- - g ried by all ancient 
authors, as a tree oi Asiatic origin : but whether it is truly indigenous to anv 
part of Europe, several modern writers ditier in opinion. Pliny si tes that it did 
not exist in Italy till after the victory which Lucullus won ove: 
king of Pontes, sixty-eight years before the Christian era. He tells us that. - Id 
twenty-six years after Lucullus planted the cherry-tree in Italy, other lands had 
cherries, even as far as Britain, beyond the ocean." He mentions eight kind- 
cherries as being cultivated in Italy, at the time he wrote his " -Neural History." 
which was A. D. 70. " The reddest cherries - - e. "are called apron ia : the 
blackest, actio : the Cascilian are round. The Julian cherries have a pleasant 
' iste, but are so tender that they must be eaten when gathered, as they will not 
endure carriage." The Duracine cherries were esteemed the best.* but the Pic- 
ardy and Portuguese cherries were most admired. The Macedonian cherries 
grew on dwarf trees : and one kind is mentioned by the above-named author, 
which never appeared ripe, having a hue betwe-; . . _ n, red. and black. He 
mentions a cherry that was g ted, in his time. r stock, which circum- 
stance gave it the name of fauna : this cherry is described as having an agreea- 
ble bitter flavour. -The cherry-tree." continues he. id never be mad- 
grow in Egypt, with all the care and attention of man." According to Abbe 
Rosier. Lucullus brought iuto Italy only tw - iperioi varieties of cherry: the 
species which were the origin of all those now in cultivation, being his 
time, indigenous to Italy, and to the forests of France, though their fruit 
neglected by the Romans. It is affirmed by Faulkner, in his "Kensington," 
that the cherry was introduced into Britain about A. D. .33. Gerard, in his 
"Herbal." published in 1597, figures a doubl and a s mi-double variety 
cherry: and. of the fruit-bearing kinds. - - are numer - 
among which he mentions the "moreUo or morel." and the " Flanders or Kent- 
ish cherries." At present, the common cherry is extensively cultivated as 
fruit-tree, throughout the temperate regions of the civilized globe ; but it does 
thrive in very high latitudes, nor within the - ss grown at considerable 
elevations. It is found in Russ s for norm as latitude " and ripens 
its fruit in Norway and East Bothnia, as far as latitude 63. I: is also :"^und in 
the north of Africa, and on several islands in the Mediterranean, but it does not 
attain so large a size hi the last-named places as in higher latituc - 
The introduction of the common cherry into the Unite IS tes ites 1 
the earliest periods of their settlements S :ne of the oldest trees of miss 
known to exist in this country, are on the estate of Mr. Lemuel "W Wells, in 
V ikers, New York, and at Point Pleasant. Bristol. Rhode Island, on tin - 
of Mr. Robert Rogers. Those of the latter place are said to have been planted 
over two hundred years 
S il, Situation. Propagati Aw Thes si Dommended for m 
sylvesl - gean.) 
Accidents, Diseases, S- The vmmon cherry-tree is not particularly liable to 
be broken by high winds, nor by ss weigh.: from snow or ice: but. - 
fruit-tree, its branches are frequently broken by careless ss in those whe g 
the fruit. Like its congener, the gean, it is subject to the flowing - im from 
the wound s Sei eral - - of wood-pecker, (Pints,) are said to be 
ocularly fond of picking holes in this tree, in search of worms. On :'. - s 
* It \r.K .llian and D.. - .aentke -.-were 
sus stris 
