CHAPTEK XIV. 

 THE CHERRY, PLUM, PRUNE, APRICOT, AND PEACH. 



The Cherry. 



179. History and Classification. This refreshing and 

 wholesome fruit is by no means a modern development. 

 In the fourteenth century we are told by Marco Polo and 

 others, that good cherries were grown in the kingdom of 

 Timur the Great in Asia. Koch in his " Dendrologie " 

 speaks of wild and cultivated cherries both sweet and sour 

 over the parts of Asia Minor he visited, and Dr. E. Eegel, 

 who lived in Turkestan nine years, says: " Stately trees of 

 the sweet cherry stand near Karatag in the Hisser district. 

 The original district for cultivation of the sour cherries in 

 central Asia embraces all of west Turkestan from Tashkend 

 and Kokham to the upper Amudaria and Afghanistan. 

 Well-flavored, clear, red kinds are found in Baldshuan. 

 In Shugnan the cherry juice is used as a cooling drink, 

 but cherry brandy is unknown." At the great commer- 

 cial fair at Nishni Novgorod in 1883 the writer and 

 Mr. Charles Gibb were told by Asiatic merchants and 

 traders that tall-growing sweet cherries and nearly sweet 

 cherries of the Vladimir type were grown up to the 56th 

 parallel of north latitude and eastward to the Ural Moun- 

 tains, where water was obtainable. Botanically it is true 

 that all cultivated cherries have originated, as stated by 

 De Candolle, from two species which are yet found wild: 



175 



