Btj ELWIIi LEES, Esq., F.L.S., F.G.S. 



OW, as to tlie common Cherry Tree fPnmus cerasns, or 

 Cerasus avitimj that you inquire about. It is at present 

 abundant in many of the upland woods Loth of Wor- 

 •cestershire and Herefordshire, so that an observer might well 

 consider it as indigenous, and Selby saj^s "it is allowed to be 

 indigenous in many parts of continental Europe, and considered 

 also by many to be so in England, as well as in Scotland." But 

 then Pliny tells us that the Cherry was first brought to Rome by 

 LucuUus, from Pontus in Asia, and after the Mithridatic AVar a 

 Cherry Tree laden with fruit was borne in procession at the 

 triumph of LucuUus. Pliny further says, " In less than one 

 hundred and twenty years after the conquest of Pontus, other 

 lauds had Cherries, even as far as Britain." Thus it would 

 appear that the Eonians introduced the Cherry to Britain, and 

 certainly it is spread about by Ijirds very much in the present 

 day. That birds do carry the stones about is clear, as I have 

 noticed quite a group of young Cherry Trees on the top of the 

 battlements of Newland Churcli in the Forest of Dean, Glouces- 

 tershire. The author of " The Wgodland Crf!)mpanion," says the 

 Cherry is " often found within the hollow trunks of old willows, 

 into which the stones have been dropt by birds." 



I never noticed any perfected fruit on the wild Cherry in the 

 Midland counties, but in Cornwall a wild variet^^ produces a 



