314 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



destroy all the European animals and vegetables 

 which are now to be found in the western world." 



Several liqueurs are manufactured from cherries. 

 A large black cherry (Merise noire) is used in the 

 composition of the Ratafia of Grenoble ; and the 

 Maraschino of Zera is prepared from a particular 

 species of cherry cultivated in Dalmatia. Kirsch- 

 wasser, which is a cheap spirit, forming a consider- 

 able article of commerce, is the fermented liquor of a 

 small black cherry. 



The whole of the genus Prunus yield what is 

 commonly called gum; that of the cherry-tree being 

 the best. But this substance, which is called cerassin, 

 resembles tragacanth, (the gum of the Astragalus,} 

 and is therefore improperly called gum, as the term 

 is usually understood, and applied to gum Arabic. 



There are about two hundred and fifty varieties of 

 cherries cultivated in England. 



The Chinese cherry (Prunus pseudo-cerasus) is a 

 valuable new species of that fruit, introduced into 

 this country so recently as 1819. The following is 

 an extract from the account of this variety, presented 

 to the Horticultural Society by Mr. Knight, their 

 President : 



" I received a plant of the Chinese cherry from the 

 garden of the Horticultural Society in the summer of 

 1824, after it had produced its crop of fruit; and it 

 was preserved under glass, and subjected to a slight 

 degree of artificial heat till the autumn of that year. 

 It appeared very little disposed to grow; but pro- 

 duced one young shoot, which afforded me a couple 

 of buds for insertion in stocks of the common cherry. 

 Soon after Christmas, the tree was placed in a pine- 

 stove, where it presently blossomed abundantly, and 

 its fruit set perfectly well, as it had previously done 



