By EDWIN LEES, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S. 



j]OW, as to the common Cherry Tree (Prunm cerasus, or 

 Cerasus aviumj that you inquire about. It is at present 

 abundant in many of the upland woods both of Wor- 

 cestershire and Herefordshire, so that an observer might well 

 consider it as indigenous, and Selby says "it is allowed to be 

 indigenous in many parts of continental Europe, and considered 

 also by many to be so in England, as well as in Scotland." But 

 then Pliny tells us that the Cherry was first brought to Home by 

 Lucullus, from Pontus in Asia, and after the Mithridatic War a 

 Cherry Tree laden with fruit was borne in procession at the 

 triumph of Lucullus. Pliny further says, " In less than one 

 hundred and twenty years after the conquest of Pontus, other 

 lands had Cherries, even as far as Britain." Thus it would 

 appear that the Romans introduced the Cherry to Britain, and 

 certainly it is spread about by birds very much in the present 

 day. That birds do carry the stones about is clear, as I have 

 noticed quite a group of young Cherry Trees on the top of the 

 battlements of Newland Church in the Forest of Dean, Glouces- 

 tershire . The author of " The Woodland Companion," says the 

 Cherry is " often found within the hollow trunks of old willows, 

 into which the stones have been dropt by birds." 



I never noticed any perfected fruit on the wild Cherry in the 

 Midland counties, but in Cornwall a wild variety produces a 



