ACCOUNT OF SOME MULE PLANTS. 277 



the hautbois, and wish to prolong its season. The plants in my garden 

 afford a second blossom in autumn. 



Not entertaining any doubt of the specific identity of the Morello and 

 common cherry, I made experiments upon a large scale, confidently 

 anticipating the production of some very valuable new varieties ; and I 

 had in consequence not less than twenty trees, which afforded blossoms in 

 the last season. Buds of many of these had been inserted into the 

 bearing branches of old cherry trees, which were trained to walls of 

 different aspects ; and blossoms, which were all apparently well organized 

 and perfect, were everywhere abundantly produced, but very nearly all 

 proved abortive. From a south wall I obtained five cherries from nearly 

 as many thousand blossoms, and four of these did not contain seeds. 

 One variety was very large, and nearly similar in colour to its male 

 parent, the Elton cherry ; but its colour was somewhat deeper. Its flesh 

 was white and melting, with very abundant juice ; but containing only a 

 small portion of saccharine matter. The others were worthless, and all 

 the plants are, I believe, unquestionably mules. 



As a species of fruit, I consider the Morello cherry to present very 

 strong claims to the attention of the horticulturist. The hardiness of its 

 blossoms, which I have found to be alike patient of heat and cold ; the 

 large size of the fruit, with its abundant juice, and power of retaining its 

 soundness and perfection long after it has become mature; and the 

 exuberant produce of the tree in situations where the common cherry 

 succeeds but ill, render it, with all its present imperfections, most 

 valuable : and there appears to be no reasonable ground for doubt, but 

 that richer and possibly larger varieties of it may be generated by proper 

 culture through a few successive generations. Should the fruit become 

 rich, a less exuberant produce must however be expected ; for sugar 

 appears to be an article, the production of which requires a large expen- 

 diture of the vital juices of the tree. 



We possess, I believe, in the Flemish and Kentish cherry, two 

 varieties of the same species with the Morello ; and the Toussaint, and 

 one or two others described by Duhamel in his Traite des Arbres 

 Fruitiers, appear to belong to the same family. The Morello cherry-tree 

 is obviously the " Cerisier tres-fertile" of this author. 



I have seen the blossoms and fruit of the Morello cherry-tree bear, in 

 the forcing-house, the temperature of seventy and even of eighty degrees, 

 without any injurious or peculiar effects, except that the plumules of the 

 seeds produced in such high temperature expanded with something very 

 like blossoms upon the points. Small white leaves, in every respect 



