4 8 4 



THE CHERRY. 



CHERRY TREES. 



HREE species of Cherry are common, Prupus Avium (the 

 Gean), Prunus Cerasus (Common or Wild Cherry), and 

 Prunus Padus (the Bird Cherry). 



Most ot the cultivated varieties appear to have been 

 developed from P. Avium and P. Cerasus. These two differ from one 

 another in certain details. 



P. Avium, a tree of some thirty feet in height, bears flowers 

 that open out widely, and fruits somewhat oval in form, with 

 the fissure clearly marked. P. Cerasus is of slighter build ; the 

 flowers retain the typical vase-form one associates with the blossom 

 of the Cherry, and the fruit is rounder. Other minor distinctions 

 exist between the cultivated varieties, but these are not of sufficient 

 importance to require separate description for the purposes of this 

 book. 



The Bird-Cherry (Prunus Padus) is totally distinct from the 

 foregoing. Its branch-system is free from the stiff habit of the 

 Cherries already named. The flowers are in racemes — a number of 

 small wide-spread florets attached to a main flower-stalk by short 

 pedicels — and afford a great contrast to their long-stalked cup-flowers, 

 which hang in clusters. Its fruit is smaller, and bears no resemblance 

 to theirs either in its pointed oval form or in its arrangement on 

 the central axis and its often upright position. The Bird-Cherry is 

 described separately in detail. 



RAMIFICATION. 



The variety in length of the upper and the lower branches on 

 trees of different species produces an equally great variety in their 



