692 ARBORETUM AND FRUTJCETUM. PART HI. 



ourselves to consider as distinct species. Numerous as are the cultivated fruit-bearing varieties of 

 the common plum, it is dear that they might be increased ad injinitum ; and it is also highly pro- 

 bable, that numerous varieties, with fruits totally different from those of the original species, might 

 be procured by cultivating the North American species, P. marftima and P. pubtfscens ; if, indeed, 

 these are anything more than varieties of P. domcstica. There are two forms, which every descrip- 

 tion of tree seems capable of sporting into, which are yet wanting in the genus Prunus, as at present 

 limited ; the one is with branches pendent, and the other with branches erect and fastigiate. There 

 can be no doubt but that an endless number of hybrids, varying in their leaves, blossoms, and fruit, 

 might be produced by fecundating the blossoms of the plum with the pollen of the almond, the peach, 

 the apricot, and the cherry ; and, though some may be disposed to assign little value to these kinds 

 of productions, yet it must not be forgotten that almost all the cultivated plants of most value to 

 man have been produced by some kind of artificial process. Experiments of this kind, therefore, 

 ought never to be discouraged. What culture has done we know ; but what it may yet accomplish 

 is concealed in the womb of time. 



GENUS V. 



CE'RASUS Juss. THE CHERRY. Lin. Syst. Icosandria Monogynia. 



Identification. Juss. Gen., 340. ; Dec. FL Fr., 4. p. 479. ; Prod., 2. p. 535. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 504. 

 Synonymes. Cerasus and Lauroce>asus Tourn. ; Prunus sp. Lin. ; Cerisier, Ft: ; Kirsche, Ger. 

 Derivation. From Cerasus, the ancient name of a town of Pontus in Asia, whence the cultivated 

 cherry was first brought to Rome, by Lucullus, a Roman General, 68 B. c. 



Description, $c. Trees and shrubs, almost all deciduous, with smooth ser- 

 rated leaves, and white flowers j and, generally, with light-coloured bark ; 

 natives of Europe, Asia, and North America. Some of them are cultivated 

 for their fruit, and the others as ornamental. In British nurseries, they are 

 generally propagated by grafting or budding on the Cerasus sylvestris : they 

 will grow in any common soil that is tolerably dry ; and the price in European 

 and American nurseries is, with a few exceptions, the same as that of common 

 fruit trees. There is much confusion in all the species, more particularly as 

 regards those which are natives of North America ; and which, as Dr. Hooker 

 judiciously observes, can only be " removed by carefully studying the plants 

 in a living state, both during the season of the blossom and that of the fruit." 

 (Fl. Bor. Amer.yi. p. 167.) 



i. Cerasdphora Dec. The Cherry-bearing Kinds. 



Sect. Char. Flowers produced from buds upon shoots not of the same year ; 

 and, in many instances, disposed umbellately. Leaves deciduous. 



A. Species cultivated for their Fruit. 



The Cherries cultivated in Gardens, according to Linnaeus (L. Pat. in Sp. PL, 

 and L. Fil. in Mant.) and almost all botanists to the time of De Candolle, 

 have been referred to Prunus avium L. and Prunus Cerasus L. (both, in 

 our opinion, only varied forms of one species) ; the former being the merisier of 

 the French, and corresponding with the small wild black bitter cherry of the 

 English (the C. sylvestris of Ray) ; and the latter the cerisier of the French, 

 and corresponding with the common red sour cherry of the English (the C. 

 vulgaris of Miller). To these two species De Candolle, in the Flore Francaise, 

 has added two others : Cerasus Juliana, which he considers as including the gui- 

 gniers ; and Cerasus duracina, under which he includes the bigarreaus, or hard 

 cherries. Under each of these four species, Seringe, in De Candolle's Pro- 

 dromusy has arranged a number of varieties, with definitions to each group ; 

 but, as neither the species nor the groups appear to us distinct, we have 

 adopted the arrangement of the author of the article on Cerasus in the Nouveau 

 Du Homely as much more simple and satisfactory j and have referred all the 

 cultivated varieties to the same species as Linnaeus ; substituting for Priinus 

 avium I/., Cerasus sylvestris, the synon. of Ray ; and for Prunus Cerasus L. t 

 Cerasus vulgaris, already used to designate the same species in Mill. Diet., and 



