144 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



Hildesheimer Spate Knorpelkirscke. ii. III. Handb. 139 fig., 140. i860. 



Kratos Knorpelkirscke. 12. ///. Handb. 59 fig., 60. 1867. 



Schone Agathe. 13. III. Handb. 63 fig., 64. 1867. 



Bigarreau de Fer. 14. Leroy Diet. Pom. 5:199, 200 fig. 1877. 



Belle Agathe. 15. Mas Pom. Gen. 11:99, 100, fig. 50. 1882. 



Bigarreau de Hildesheim. 16. Hogg Fruit Man. 282. 1884. 



This variety, one of the oldest, has been called by a great number of 

 names by European writers. The cherry mentioned by Duhamel, in 1768, 

 as a late Guigne with red fruit, otherwise known as Guigne de Fer, can 

 be no other than Hildesheim. The exact origin of the variety has never 

 been known, though it is supposed to have sprung up in the neighborhood 

 of Hildesheim, Prussia. It was brought to America early in the Nine- 

 teenth Century, probably by William Prince. With it came some of 

 the numerous foreign names. It seems certain that Late Red Guigne 

 mentioned by Prince was Hildesheim. Ripening late and being small 

 and of rather undersrrable texture, Hildesheim did not meet with much 

 favor in America, never being widely disseminated, and has long since 

 passed from ctiltivation. This variety, under the name BeUe Agathe, was 

 propagated in Belgium by M. Thiery about 1852 and for some time was 

 supposed to be a separate sort. The following description is compiled: 



Tree very large, vigorous, upright, hardy, an annual bearer, unproductive while 

 young producing good crops later; branches thick, large, long, straight; leaves numerous, 

 of medium size, oval or elongated-oval, acuminate; margin finely and regularly serrate; 

 petiole slender, rather short, tinged red, with large, flattened glands; blooming season 

 early. 



Fruit matures very late, usually attached in fives but sometimes in threes and fours; 

 small to medium, roundish-cordate, flattened on one side, somewhat irregular; color 

 yellowish, mottled and marbled with dark red; stem two inches long, slender, somewhat 

 curved; skin thick; flesh pale yellow, sHghtly tinged with red at the pit, firm, somewhat 

 stringy, rather dry, with uncolored juice, pleasant flavored, sweet; quality good; stone 

 meditmi to large, with reddish surface, long, compressed. 



IDA 



Prunus avium 



I. Card. Mon. 20:270, 271. 1878. 2. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 3rd App. 162. 1881. 3. Am. Pom. 

 Soc. Cat. 26. 1909. 



Ida is a handsome, large, light red cherry resembling Napoleon in shape 

 and Rockport in color, but differing from both in having soft flesh which 

 places it among the Hearts rather than the Bigarreaus. Because of beauty 

 of the fniit, earliness and good tree-characters, Ida promises to become a 



