CERASUS, CHERRY TREE. 161 



III. Larger garden CHERRY TREE with heart-shaped fruit, partly white, partly red, with 

 tender & juicy flesh 



GEAN CHERRY TREE with large white fruit. (PL I Fig. 3.) 



This tree differs from the black fruit gean cherry tree only in that the bark on its 

 shoots is an ash gray color and its leaves are a paler green. 



The fruit is nine-&-a-half lignes long. Its large diameter is eight-&-a-half lignes & 

 its small diameter is eight lignes. Thus it's slightly flattened on its diameter and is more 

 enlarged at the end near the stalk than at the tip. It's rarely divided lengthwise by a 

 distinct groove but rather by a very fine red line without depth. 



The skin is flesh-colored on the side toward the sun & a waxy white on the shaded 

 side. After a lot of exposure to the sun, some of the fruit takes on a light & gentle red tint 

 almost all over. 



The flesh is very white, except underneath the reddest parts of the skin where it 

 takes on a slight tint of the same color. It's a little firmer than that of the black gean 

 cherry. 



The juice is white & has quite a pleasant flavor. 



The pit is completely white and clings tightly to the flesh. It's five-&-a-half lignes 

 long, four lignes wide, and three lignes thick. 



This gean ripens about the tenth of June. There's a variety of it that is flatter 

 around its diameter & divided lengthwise by a groove that's very distinct & indeed quite 

 deep on one side of the fruit. It turns much less red. 



The three gean cherry trees & their varieties that I've just described are the only 

 ones that are known & cultivated in the vicinity of Paris. 



The gean cherries, quite pleasant to eat off the tree, lose their value when 

 transported even a short distance. Their soft flesh is easily bruised, & they're then flat & 

 tasteless. 



