THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 51 



than do the other writers of the period and because he was a compiler 

 and a translator, having, as he quaintly says, " perused divers Herbals 

 set fourth in other languages;" thus from Gerarde we obtain a conception 

 of cherries growing on the continent as well as those growing in England. 

 Students of the English herbals say that Gerarde translated, copied and 

 adapted from Matthiolus, whose book we have noted, but more particularly 

 from Dodoens who in 1554 published in Antwerp A History of Plants. 

 These two worthies, in turn, had borrowed very freely from stiU more 

 ancient writers — Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Columella and others. As 

 might be suspected, errors centuries old were passed down, yet each new 

 translation or compilation contains much added information and is far 

 freer from error. In particiolar, Gerarde seems to have been a wise com- 

 piler and adapter and to have combined a large measure of first-hand 

 practical knowledge with his borrowings from others. This is especially 

 true of what he writes concerning cherries, a fnoit with which he seems 

 to have been very familiar. 



The following is Gerarde's account, with interpolations by the 

 author: 



" The ancient Herbalists have set down four kinds of Cherry trees; 

 the first is great and wild, the second tame or of the garden, the third 

 hath sour fruit, the fourth is that which is called in Latin Chamaecerasus, 

 or the dwarfe Cherry tree. The later writers have fotmd divers sorts 

 more, some bringing forth great fruit, others lesser; some with white fruit, 

 some with blacke, others of the colottr of black bloud, varying infinitely 

 according to the clymat and country where they grow." 



The four cherries which Gerarde says the " ancient herbalists have 

 set down " are, it is easy to see: first, the wild Prunus avium; second, 

 cultivated sweet varieties of Prunus avium; third, the sour Prunus cerasus; 

 fourth, the Dwarf Cherry, Prunus fruticosa. 



" The English Cherry tree groweth to a high and great tree, the 

 body whereof is of a mean bignesse, which is parted above into very many 

 boughes, with a barke somewhat smooth, of a brown crimson colour, tough 

 and pliable; the substance or timber is also brown in the middle, and the 

 outer part is somewhat white: the leaves be great, broad, long, set with 

 veins or nerves, and sleightly nicked about the edges: the fioures are white, 

 of a mean bigness, consisting of five leaves, and having certain threds 

 in the middle of the like colour. The Cherries be round, hanging upon 

 long stems or footstalks, with a stone in the middest which is covered 

 with a pvHp or soft meat; the kemeU thereof is not unpleasant to the 

 taste, though somewhat bitter." 



