122 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



As a tree the wild Clierry is valuable not only for its timber, but for the food 

 which it supjilies to birds, by the increase of which little creatures the insects whicli 

 attack trees and grain of every kind are destroyed. The folly which would exterminate 

 these feathered friends, grudging them a share of the abundance of an orchard, is well 

 repaid by a plague of insects of every kind which devastate whole acres of cultivated 

 land, and destroy far more than an army of little birds would require to refresh and 

 gladden us with their sweet songs, as well as to rid us of the swarms of insects which 

 without their aid are so sure to multiiily and infest our gardens and orchards. On the 

 Continent Cherry-trees are much used as roadside trees, particularly in the north of 

 Germany, where the apple and the pear will not thrive. In some countries the road 

 passes for miles through an avenue of Cherry-trees ; and Loudon tells us that he tra- 

 velled for several days through an avenue of Cherry-trees from Strasburg by a circuitous 

 route to Munich. These avenues in Germany are planted by desire of the respective 

 governments, not only to shade the traveller, but to afford him refreshment on hia 

 journey. All persons are allowed to partake of the Cherries, on condition of their not 

 injuring the trees ; and when it is desired by the proprietor of the land on which they 

 grow to retain the fruit of any particular tree, the fact is notified by tying a wisp of 

 straw on one of the conspicuous branches ; and this indication is almost universally 

 respected. 



The Cherry-tree has always been a favourite with poets and lovers of song. The 

 whiteness and profusion of the blossoms, the rich bright colour of the fruit, and the 

 vigorous nature of its growth, are all sources of attraction. The old English song of 

 "Cherry ripe" is familiar to us all, and had its origin in one by Herrlck. In Cam- 

 bridgeshire, at Ely, when the Cherries are ripe, numbers of people repair, on what they 

 call Cherry Sunday, to the Cherry-oi-chards in the neighbourhood, where, on the pay- 

 ment of sixpence each, every one is allowed to eat as many Cherries as they choose. A 

 siiiiilarye^e is held at Montmoi'ency. A like festival is also annually held at Ham- 

 burg, called the Feast of Cherries, during which troojis of children parade the street 

 with green boughs ornamented with Cherries. The origin of the Jete seems to have been 

 thus : — In 1432, when the city of Hamburg was besieged by the Hussites, one of the 

 citizens, named Wolf, proposed that all the children in the city between seven and 

 fourteen years of age should be clad in mourning and sent as suppliants to the enemy. 

 Procopius Nasus, chief of the Hussites, was so moved by this spectacle, that he not only 

 promised to s)iare the city, but regaled the young suppliants with Cherries and other 

 fruits, and the children returned crowned with leaves, shouting " Victory," and holding 

 boughs laden with Cherries in their hands. 



SPECIES III.-P RUNUS CERASUS. Linn. 



Plate CCCCXII. 

 BromfieU, Fl. Vect. \\ 144. 



A bushy slirub, producing very numerous suckers. Leaves 

 firm, erect, oval or obovate-obloug, rather gradually acumiuate or 

 acuminate-cusi^idate at the apex, very irregularly crenate-serrate 

 on the margins, at length nearly glabrous. Umbels mostly scat- 

 tered, fastigiate, surrounded by scales, of which the inner ones 

 become leuf-like. Calyx-tube bLdlshapcd-obcouical, not contracted 



