4d 



Kharkof and Kiev, it is the popular kind, and in the more 

 Southern climate of Kiev, still reclaims its dwarf habit of growth. 

 In one garden there, we saw it planted under plum trees, just as 

 currant bushes in city gardens often are with us. ' 



The tree, if I may so speak, is of bush form, and when it be- 

 comes too old to bear profitably, the older parts are cut away, and 

 new sprouts take their place. It is usually grown in sod, and 

 under such lack of culture brings good returns, hence its great 

 value to us as a tree for careless cultivators. It can be grown 

 from seed, as it often is, but as it varies somewhat, it is better to 

 propagate from the best by sprouts. Sometimes, though rarely, 

 it is grafted. Some trees are erect in growth, others weeping ; 

 both forms are widely scattered. The weeping is usually con- 

 sidered the best, but not invariably so. Some have red flesh, but 

 as a rule the flesh is deep, purplish red ; the skin, when fully ripe, 

 reddish black, and when fully ripe, almost over- ripe, a rich min- 

 gling of acid and sweetness. When quite over-ripe it loses its 

 acidity, and combines with its sweetness somewhat of the peculiar 

 but pleasant bitter of the commoner kinds of Guigne. 



If the cultivation of this Vladimir cherry proves such a profit- 

 able industry to large numbers of people in Russia, in a climate 

 as severe as the city of Quebec, why might it not prove equally 

 profitable in like climates here ? It certainly should be introduced, 

 and that in quantity for immediate trial, and if successful there is 

 no reason why we should not have several Canadian Vladimirs, 

 with their millions of cherry bushes, and their canning establish- 

 ments, and good cheap cherries in all our markets. 



OsTHEiM {Osiheimer Weichel.) — I am told by Director Stoll, of | 

 Proskau, that this is a native of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 

 Spain, where it was found at elevations of 5,000 and 6,000 feet, 

 and that it was brought to Germany in 1687 by a German Pro- 

 fessor, whose name is known, though I cannot give it, and who j 

 grew it in the neighborhood of the town of Ostheim, whence its 

 present name. Those who assign to the cherry an oriental origin, 

 and cite Pliny that it did not appear in Italy until after the defeat 

 of Mithridates, King of Pontus, in b. g. 65, hold that it must have 



heJ 

 ma 



