44 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



To sum up, the cherry comes into literature first from Greece in the 

 writings of Theophrastus. There can be but little doubt, however, but 

 that it had been cultivated for centuries before Theophrastus wrote. 

 Whether one or both of the two cherries were domesticated by the 

 Greeks, beginning with their civilization, or whether cultivated cherries 

 came to Greece from Asia Minor, is not now known. It is very probable 

 that some of the several varieties grown in Greece came under cultivation 

 through domestication of wild plants; others were introduced from regions 

 farther east. 



THE SWEET CHERRY POSSIBLY THE PARENT OF THE SOUR CHERRY 



A digression may be permitted here to state a hypothesis suggested 

 by De Candolle^ which shovdd interest both fruit-growers and plant- 

 breeders. De CandoUe, while considering the two species of ctdtivated 

 cherries to be now quite distinct, suggests that, since they differ essentially 

 but little in their characters and since their original habitats were in the 

 same region, it is probable that one species came from the other. He 

 surmises, since Prunus avium is the commoner in the original home, 

 is generally the more vigorous of the two, has spread much farther and 

 probably at a much earlier date from the primal habitation in Asia Minor 

 than Prunus cerasus, that the latter, the Sour Cherry, is derived from 

 the Sweet Cherry. In the future breeding of cherries confirmatory evidence 

 of such a relationship may be obtained though, should none be found, 

 the negation should go for naught and the supposition can only remain 

 an interesting and plausible hypothesis. 



THE CHERRY IN ITALY 



Pliny attempts to give the first full account of cultivated cherries 

 and, even though among his statements are several inaccuracies, yet he 

 may be said to have made a very good beginning of a flora of ctdtivated 

 cherries for he names and describes ten varieties. The fact that there 

 were as many as ten cherries in Italy at the time Pliny wrote, less than 

 a centviry after the return of LucuUus from Pontus, is strong evidence 

 that the cherry in Italy antedates Lucullus. Besides, it is hardly probable 

 that Pliny knew and described all of the cherries to be found in the whole 

 of his country. But even if these ten comprise the entire number, those 

 who know how extremely difficult it is to introduce new plants in 



' De Candolle, Alphonse Origin of Cultivated Plants 210. 1885. 



