THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 7 



when the leaves turn from green to light and dark tints of red. All will 

 agree that a cherry tree in full fruit is a most beautiful object. In the 

 winter when the leaves have fallen, some of the trees, especially of the 

 ornamental varieties, are very graceful and beautiftil, others are often 

 picturesque, and even the somewhat stiff and formal Sweet Cherries are 

 attractive plants in the garden or along the roadside. 



Very acceptable jellies, sauces and preserves are made from several of 

 the wild cherries in the Padus group. The peasantry of the Eastern Hemi- 

 sphere have in times of need found them important foods as have also the 

 American Indians at all times. The fruits of some of the species of Padus 

 are quite commonly used in flavoring liquetirs and on both continents are 

 sometimes fermented and distilled into a liqueur similar to kirschwasser. 

 The bark of different parts of the trees of this group is valuable in medicine 

 — at least is largely used. The trees of several species form handsome 

 ornamentals and some of them are in commerce for the purpose. Prunus 

 serotina, one of the group, because of the strength of its wood and the 

 beautiftil satiny polish which its surface is capable of receiving, is a valuable 

 timber tree of American forests. For the products of the members of this 

 group, as just set forth, the domestication of some of the species of Padus 

 might well be pushed. 



LITERATURE OF THE CHERRY 



Despite the important part they have played in orcharding since the 

 domestication of fruits in temperate zones, as shown by their history and 

 their present popularity, pomological writers have singularly neglected 

 cherries. There are relatively few European books devoted to them and 

 in America, while there are treatises on all others of the common tree-fruits, 

 the cherry alone seems not to have inspired some pomologist to print a 

 book. Neither are the discussions in general pomologies as full and accu- 

 rate as for other fruits. The reason for this neglect is that the cherry, 

 until the last decade or two, has scarcely been a fruit of commerce, having 

 been grown almost entirely for home use or at most for the local market. 

 As a result of this neglect of the cherry by students of pomology, we have 

 no authoritative nor serviceable system of classification of the varieties of 

 cherries and the nomenclature of this fruit is in an appalling state of con- 

 fusion, as a glance at the synonymy of some of the older varieties discussed 

 in The Cherries of New York will show. 



