86 Transactions of the London Horticultural Society. 



21 . Some Account of a 7ietv Cherry, called the Early Purple Guigne. 

 By Mr. Robert Thompson, Under-Gardener in the Fruit De- 

 partment of the Garden of the Society. Read June 1. 1830. 



The May Duke is our best early cherry, but others of 

 great excellence ripening at the same time as, or soon after, it, 

 have lately been added to our catalogues and collections. Of 

 these, Knight's Early Black and the Black Tartarian are of 

 the highest merit. " But as the difficulty of procuring fruit 

 is greater in May and the beginning of June, than at any 

 other period of the yeai', the Early May cherry has long been 

 cultivated as the early substitute of the May Duke, because it 

 ripens, or rather colours, about a week before the May Duke, 

 although it really does not possess a single good quality." The 

 relative merit of this new^ kind, the Early Purple Guigne, 

 consists in that it is " superior to the Early May in size and 

 quality, and ripens even earlier;" and on the ground of these 

 qualities it is thought " an acquisition of the greatest im- 

 portance." When this Early Purple Guigne, the Early May, 

 and the May Duke, are grow^n in similar situations, the Early 

 Purple Guigne is in full perfection when the Early May is 

 barely ripe, and when the May Duke is quite green : it may 

 be said to ripen about a fortnight earlier than the May Duke, 

 and to be fully equal to it in quality. Its fruit " is of a good 

 size, somewhat heart-shaped and compressed ; its footstalks 

 are long, of moderate thickness, rather deeply inserted in an 

 almost round cavity ; its skin is of a shining dark purple 

 colour when the fruit is well ripened. The flesh is purplish, 

 juicy, tolerably soft and tender, with a sweet rich flavour. 

 The stone is of a middle size, of a roundish ovate figure : 

 ripens on an east or west wall in the first week in June : on a 

 south aspect it may be obtained in the end of May. Has 

 been distributed from the Society's Garden under the erro- 

 neous name of the Early Purple Griotte ; which misnomer 

 arose from its originally and accidentally forming one of a 

 collection received in 1822 from Geneva, named Griotte de 

 Chaux. 



22. On the Means of prolonging the Duration of valuable Varieties 

 of Fruits. By Thomas A. Knight, Esq. F.R.S., President. Read 

 May 3. 1831. 



Mr. Knight believes that all the constitutional properties of 

 every variety of fruit are contemporaneously inherent in all 

 the plants which can be made from the buds of that variety, if 

 taken as they usually are from the branches, be the mode of 

 multiplying the buds of these branches into plants what it 

 may. No trees of any variety' " can be made to produce 



