154 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



This variety has been much confused with other cherries, particularly 

 Montmorency, Early Richmond and Short Stem Montmorency. Bradley, 

 in 1739, mentioned a Flemish cherry which undoubtedly was the Large 

 Montmorency of today, for the name Flemish has rather commonly been 

 applied to this sort since Bradley's time. There is no doubt but that 

 Large Montmorency sprang up about the same time as the true Mont- 

 morency, in the Montmorency Valley in France. It may have been a 

 seedling of the Cerise H^tive, afterwards known as Early Richmond, though 

 some writers are of the opinion that the Montmorencies and Cerise Hative 

 were all seedlings of the old Cerise Commune. At any rate, there have 

 come to be at least three distinct types of Montmorency: the true Mont- 

 morency with long stems and moderate-sized fruit, called Montmorency A 

 Longue Queue or, in America, Montmorency Ordinaire; the Large Mont- 

 morency with its large fruit and shorter, thicker stems, commonly known 

 by the French and German writers as Montmorency A Gros Fruit, Gros 

 Gobet, Grosse Glaskirsche von Montmorency and sometimes as Mont- 

 morency ^ Courte Queue; and the Short-Stem Montmorency, often called 

 Montmorency ^ Courte Queue and sometimes Gros Gobet. Large Mont- 

 morency has often been sold for Montmorency, or for Early Richmond, 

 hence the three varieties are more or less confused. Large Montmo- 

 rency probably came to America about the same time as Montmorency 

 and Early Richmond, early in the Nineteenth Century. In 1875, 

 EUwanger & Barry, Rochester, New York, disseminated this sort quite 

 extensively but later it proved too unproductive for commercial use. It 

 was soon replaced by the true Montmorency but often the names were 

 interchanged and large forms of the Montmorency were thought to be 

 this variety. The unproductiveness of this cherry has been consistently 

 mentioned by nearly every writer from Duhamel's time to the present. 

 Large Montmorency was added to the American Pomological Society's 

 catalog list of fruits in 1885 as Montmorency Large but in 1899 this name 

 was changed to Large Montmorency. 



Tree rather large, vigorous, upright, vasifonn, unproductive; trunk thick, roughened; 

 branches stocky, nearly smooth, reddish-brown overspread with dark ash-gray, with 

 numerous large, raised, conspicuous lenticels; branchlets thick, short, brown tinged 

 with bronze, smooth except for the large, numerous yellowish, conspicuous, raised 

 lenticels. 



Leaves munerous, three and one-half inches long, one and three-fourths inches v/ide, 

 folded upward, broad-oval to obovate, thick, stiff; upper surface dark green, slightly rugose; 



