THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 4 1 



THE ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED CHERRIES 



Prunus cerasus, of which the Montmorency is the commonest repre- 

 sentative in America, is now to be found wild wherever Sour Cherries are 

 much grown, for it is a favorite food of many birds which quickly scatter 

 its seeds from centers of cultivation. Nearly all of the botanies of tem- 

 perate regions in which agriculture is carried on name this cherry as an 

 escape from cultivation into woods and hedgerows and along roadsides. 

 The Sour Cherry, then, is now to be found truly wild in many parts of 

 several continents. It is not so easy to say where the habitat and what 

 the condition before the species was cultivated. But botany, archaeology, 

 history and philology indicate that the original habitat of the Sour Cherry 

 is southeastern Europe and the nearby countries in Asia. 



After saying that this cherry has been found wild in the forests of 

 Asia Minor, the plains of Macedonia, on Mount Olympus and in neigh- 

 boring territories, De CandoUe, however, limits its habitat to the region 

 " from the Caspian Sea to the environments of Constantinople."^ But 

 as a wild plant this cherry must have spread over a far greater area. Even 

 the broadest boundaries of the habitat of Prunus cerasus as set by 

 De CandoUe show over-caution. Thus, the Marasca cherry, a botanical 

 variety of Prunus cerasus, is most certainly wild in the Province of Dalmatia 

 on the Adriatic Sea in Austria; so, too, it is certain that this species is 

 feral as far away from De CandoUe's center of distribution as northern 

 Austria and southern Germany and has been so for untold ages. It is safe 

 to say that the original source of the Sour Cherry was the territory lying 

 between Switzerland and the Adriatic Sea on the west and the Caspian 

 Sea and probably somewhat farther north on the east.' That is, our 

 savage forefathers must have found this cherry in the region thus outlined, 

 probably in a much more extended territory, into which it was brought 

 in more or less remote times by agencies other than human from De 

 CandoUe's smaller area of origin. 



It is easier to define the geographic range of the wild Sweet Cherry. 

 Botanists very generaUy agree that Prunus avium as a wild plant inhabits 

 aU of the mainland of Etirope in which the cultivated varieties of the 

 species can be grown — that is, most of the continent south of Sweden 

 and may be found wild well into southern Russia. The species is reported 

 sparingly wUd in northern Africa and is a very common wild plant in 



1 De CandoUe, Origin 0/ Cultivated Plants 207. 1885. 



