66 FRUIT AND ITS CULTIVATION. 



CHAPTER VII. 

 The Cherry. 



11 THIS beautiful fruit," says Phillips in his " History of 

 Fruits," " was procured and brought into Europe by the 

 overthrow of Mithridates, King of Pontus, when he was 

 driven from his dominions by Lucullus, the Roman 

 general, who found the cherry-tree growing in Cerasus, 

 a city of Pontus (now called Keresoun, a maritime town 

 belonging to the Turks in Asia), which his army destroyed, 

 and from whence it derived the present name of Cherry." 

 The date, therefore, of its introduction into Europe would 

 be about 67 B.C. 



According to Pliny, the Roman naturalist, the Cherry 

 was introduced into Britain in 42 B.C. Other authorities 

 state that the date of its irttroducion here was in the reign 

 of Nero A.D. 55. Eight varieties of Cherries were known 

 to Pliny early in the Christian era, so that the Romans 

 were evidently well acquainted with the fruit. Cherries 

 were hawked about the streets as early as 1415; they 

 were mentioned in a list of fruits in the reign of Henry VII., 

 and Parkinson, a writer early in the seventeenth century, 

 alludes to the fact of 1 thirty-six varieties being grown in 

 his time. 



Cherry orchards existed in Kent in the sixteenth 

 century, since it is recorded that one orchard realised the 

 sum of ;i,ooo. It is therefore evident that Cherries have 

 been extensively grown in England for some centuries. 



Propagation. The Cherry is usually increased by seed 

 in the case of rearing new varieties only; by budding in 

 June and July ; or by whip grafting in late March or early 

 April. Grafting, however, is not so generally practised 

 as budding, which is a much more successful and easy 

 method than the former in the case of all stone fruits. 

 See chapter on " Propagation " for details. 



