VI PREFACE 



Station, effort has been made to give as accurately as possible the region 

 in which the species and varieties grow best and to set forth ftilly the local 

 prejudices of the fruits. Such knowledge cannot but be of value in deter- 

 mining the factors which govern the distribution of plants. The establish- 

 ment of community relationships and description of plant communities now 

 constitute an important part of botany on the one side and of geography on 

 the other. No phenomena give better expression of the climate and the soil 

 of a region than plant communities. When monographs of several of the 

 fruits of temperate North America shall have been completed, with state- 

 ments of likes and dislikes of the fniits and their varieties as to climate 

 and soil, material shovild be available to establish plant communities from 

 which can be drawn valuable generalizations. 



AU, howsoever interested in pomology, are dependent upon descrip- 

 tions of fniits. A well-made description of a fruit, to one mentally equipped 

 to interpret it, is second only, in the study of pomology, to having the fruit 

 itself. With but few exceptions the descriptions of the major varieties 

 are made first hand from cherries grdwing on the Station grounds, though 

 in many cases fruits from different localities have been compared with 

 those home-grown. 



Since there are fewer varieties of cherries than of plvuns, it has been 

 possible to describe and illustrate a greater proportion of the sorts under 

 ciiltivation than in the book on plums, yet a selection has had to be made 

 of the worthiest of the many kinds. The choice of sorts for full descriptions 

 and color-plates has been determined: (i) By the present value of the 

 variety; (2) the probable value if the variety be a novelty; (3) by the 

 value of the data to the cherry breeder; (4) because of historical value 

 — to show what the trend of cherry evolution has been; (5) to show the 

 relationships of species and varieties. The varieties not illustrated nor fully 

 described are divided into two further groups in accordance with the same 

 considerations. 



In botanical nomenclature the code adopted by the International 

 Botanical Congress, held at Vienna in 1905, has been used. In the use 

 of horticultural names we have followed somewhat closely the rules of the 

 American Pomological Society, though in many cases strict observance of 

 these rules, poor at best, would have added to rather than lessened the 

 confusion in horticultural nomenclattire and, therefore, they have been 

 honored in the breach rather than in the observance. 



