CHERRY VARIETIES 301 



of written history and their systematic cultiva- 

 tion must have been a very early branch of 

 horticulture. 



The cherries grown for fruit fall into two 

 great natural groups, the sweet and sour sorts. 

 The sour cherry, Primus cerasus, is more widely 

 known than the sweet form, Prunus avium, be- 

 cause it is less exacting in regard to soils. It 

 will and does grow almost any place where it 

 can find space for its roots. It withstands neg- 

 lect better than any other fruit tree and its 

 product is enjoyed by every one. This hardy, 

 cosmopolitan fruit must have been cultivated 

 from very early times for it is now difficult to 

 say where it originally grew wild. Botanists 

 have stated roughly that it, and the sweet 

 cherry also, came from southeastern Europe 

 and the adjacent parts of Asia. From this 

 region which cradled the human race have come 

 many of our fruits placed there by an all-wise 

 Providence for the benefit of the first men. 

 Maybe the Garden of Eden really did exist in 

 those parts. Horticultural facts certainly do 

 not dispute such an assertion. At the present 

 time the sour cherry has been very widely dis- 

 seminated over the civilized globe and except 

 in the tropics it seems to thrive wherever it 

 is placed. In all sections where it has been 

 long grown it has become wild through having 

 its seeds distributed by the birds. Not so wild 



