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Cherry. Cerasus vulgaris, Mill. (Rosacea). 



The cherry fruit is formed by a change in the substance of 

 the carpellary leaf. The internal surface of this becomes har- 

 dened into the stone or endocarp, whilst the external surface or 

 epicarp remains as a thin cuticle or skin, and the pulp or meso- 

 carp is formed by the increase of the parenchyma or fleshy tissue 

 of the leaf There is much confusion in the cultivated species. 

 The griottes of the French 'belong to Cerasus caproniana, DC; 

 the bigarreaus to C. ditraciiia^ DC; the Merisiers or wild, to C. 

 avium, DC; the gtiigniers ox geans, to C. Juliana^ DC Don^ 

 gives eleven sorts referred to C aviumy sixty-one to C, duracirta, 

 and thirty-eight to C. Juliana, In all, he names two hundred 

 and twenty sorts. The London Horticultural Society in 1832 

 recognized two hundred and nineteen varieties. In 1866 Downing 

 describes one hundred and thirty-two sorts, and in 1887, the 

 American Pomological Society approves of forty-one kinds as 

 deserving of culture. In the first century Pliny^ speaks of the 

 Apronianan as the reddest variety, the Lutatian as the blackest, the 

 Coecilian as perfectly round, the Junianian as agreeable, but very 

 delicate and not bearing transportation, the Plinianan as the finest, 

 the Lusitanian and those of the Rhine, besides several of doubt- 

 ful interpretation. The Rhine cherry, he says, has a third color, 

 being a mixture of black, red and green, and has the appearance 

 of being just on the turn to ripening. 



In the Geoponics,^ directions are given by Democritus for 

 raising grapes without kernels, and he says the same method 

 will produce seedless cherries. Martial, as quoted by Palladius^, 

 avers the same. I find, however, very little on seedless cherries 

 in later writers. Knight^ says he crossed the Morello and Com- 

 mon Cherry, and obtained five cherries from nearly as many 

 thousand blossoms, and four of these did not contain seed. In 

 the best varieties of the cherry, I have found many of the kernels 

 to be abortive, thus:^ 



1 Card. Diet. Vol. 2, p. 505, 



2 Pnn) , lib. xv. c. 30. 



3 Geop. lib. 4, c. 7. 



4 Pall. lib. 3. c. 29 ; lib. 11, c. 12. 



5 Phys. and Hort. Papers, 277. 



6 Rep. N. Y. Ag. Exp. Sta. 1882, p. 81. 



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