296 ON THE CULTURE OF THE PRUNUS PSEUDO-CERASUS. 



number of gardeners. It lias, however, properties and qualities which 

 will render it an acquisition of considerable value ; and I am perfectly 

 confident that it has not yet been seen, in this country, nearly in the 

 greatest state of excellence which it is capable of acquiring. I have 

 therefore addressed to the Horticultural Society the following obser- 

 vations upon the propagation and culture of it, believing that I am 

 better acquainted with the means of propagating it than any other 

 person is, though I am sensible that I am but ill prepared to execute 

 the task which I have undertaken. 



I received a plant of the Chinese cherry from the garden of the 

 Horticultural Society in the summer of 1824, after it had produced its 

 crop of fruit ; and it was preserved under glass, and subjected to a slight 

 degree of artificial heat, till the autumn of that year. It appeared 

 very little disposed to grow, but produced one young shoot, which 

 afforded me a couple of buds for insertion in stocks of the common 

 cherry. Soon after Christmas the tree was placed in a pine-stove, 

 where it presently blossomed abundantly, and its fruit set perfectly 

 well, as it had previously done in the garden of the Society, and it 

 ripened in March. The cherries were middle-sized, or rather small 

 compared with the larger varieties of the common cherry ; they were 

 of a reddish amber colour, very sweet and juicy, and excellent for the 

 season in which they ripened. The roots of the tree were confined to 

 rather a small pot, and the plant was not even in a moderately vigorous 

 state of growth ; I therefore infer that the fruit did not acquire either 

 the size or state of perfection which it would have attained if the 

 tree had been larger, and in a vigorous state of growth, and the season 

 of the year favourable. 



I inserted the two buds which I had obtained into stocks of the 

 common cherry ; and they seemed to take well, but both appeared lifeless 

 in the spring, though one vegetated late in the summer, and is now 

 bearing a few cherries in the pine-stove. 



During the last spring and early part of the summer, the old tree 

 retained in the stove put out very numerous roots from the bases of 

 its young branches, similar to those emitted, under similar circum- 

 stances, by the vine ; and I thence inferred that the species might be 

 readily propagated by cuttings ; and having planted some cuttings in 

 the pine-stove this year, in January, I have proved that plants may 

 be thus raised with perfect facility. 



I endeavoured to obtain seedling plants in the present spring ; but 

 a single seed only has vegetated. The remainder decayed without 



