87 



tioned by the above author, which never 

 appeared ripe, having a hue between green, 

 red, and black. He mentions a cherry that 

 was grafted, in his time, on a bay-tree stock, 

 which circumstance gave it the tiame of 

 laurta : this cherry is described as having an 

 agreeable bitterness. " The cherry-tree could 

 never be made to grow in Egypt/' continues 

 Pliny, " with all the care and attention of 



man/' 



The county of Kent has long been cele- 

 brated for the quantity of cherries which it 

 produces, and, in all probability, they were 

 first planted in this part of England, of which 

 Caesar speaks more favourably than of any 

 other part which he visited. Some authors 

 assure us, that the whole race of cherries 

 that had been brought to this country by 

 the Romans, were lost in the Saxon period, 

 and were only restored by Richard Harris, 

 fruiterer to Henry the VIHth, who brought 

 them from Flanders, and planted them at 

 Sittingbourn in Kent. This appears to be 

 an error, as Gerard says, " the Flanders' 

 cherrie-tree differeth not from our English 

 cherrie-tree in stature or in forme," &c. 



There is an account of a cherry-orchard 

 of thirty-two acres in Kent, which, in the 

 year 154)0, produced fruit that sold in these 



