THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 45 



a country with the facilities we have in our day, will doubt that all of the 

 cherries in Pliny's account could have been introduced in Italy 1900 

 years ago and have come under general cultivation, as according to Pliny 

 they had, within the short space of a century. The following quotation, 

 then, must be taken as an account of the cherries grown in Italy in the 

 first centtiry after Christ with little weight given to the historical evidence 

 presented.^ 



" The cherry did not exist in Italy before the period of the victory 

 gained over Mithridates by L. Lucullus, in the year of the City 680. He 

 was the first to introduce this tree from Pontus, and now, in the course 

 of one hundred and twenty years, it has travelled beyond the Ocean, and 

 arrived in Britannia even. The cherry, as we have already stated, in 

 spite of every care, has been found impossible to rear in Egypt. Of 

 this fruit, that known as the " Apronian " is the reddest variety, the 

 Lutatian being the blackest, and the Caecilian perfectly round. The 

 Junian cherry has an agreeable flavour, but only, so to say, when eaten 

 beneath the tree, as they are so remarkably delicate that they will not 

 bear carrying. The highest rank, however, has been awarded to the 

 Duracinus variety, known in Campania as the " Plinian " cherry, and 

 in Belgica to the Lusitanian cherry, as also to one that grows on the banks 

 of the Rhenus. This last kind has a third colour, being a mixture of 

 black, red, and green, and has always the appearance of being just on 

 the turn to ripening. It is less than five years since the kind known as 

 the " laiu-el-cherry " was introduced, of a bitter but not unpleasant flavour, 

 the produce of a graft upon the laurel. The Macedonian cherry grows 

 on a tree that is very small, and rarely exceeds three cubits in height; 

 while the chamaecerasus is still smaller, being but a mere shrub. The 

 cherry is one of the first trees to recompense the cultivator with its 

 yearly growth; it loves cold localities and a site exposed to the north. 

 The fruits are sometimes dried in the sun, and preserved, like olives, in 

 casks." 



How are the cherries described in the passage from Pliny related 

 to those of modem culture? A score or more of commentators have tried 

 to tell but when the comments are compared Pliny's disorder becomes 

 confusion worse confounded. Here, as in his historical statements, Pliny 

 seems to have prepared the ground for a fine crop of misunderstandings. 

 The speculations as to what particular cherry each of the descriptions 

 fits quickly show the futility of specification. A few generalizations only 

 are warranted. 



Thus, if we assume, as most commentators do, that Apronian, the 



1 Bostock and Riley Nat. History of Pliny 3:322. 1855. 



