THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 1 63 



MAGNIFIQUE 



Prunus avium X Prunus cerasus 



I. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 27. 1909. 



Belle et Magnifigue. 2. Kenrick Am. Orch. 279, 280. 1832. 3. Ibid. 239. 1841. 



Belle Magnifigue. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 193. 1845. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 54. 1852. 

 6. Elliott Fr. Book 191. 1854. 7. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 272. 1857. 8. Soc. Nat. Hort. Prance Pom. 

 82 fig., 83. 1904. 



Belle de Magnifigue. 9. Ann. Pom. Beige 1:61, fig. I. 1853. 10. Pom. France 7: No. 19, PI. 19. 

 1871. 



Belle de Chatenay. 11. ///. Handb. 179 fig., 180. i860. 12. Mortillet Le Cerisier 2:175-178, fig. 

 48. 1866. 12. Mas Le Verger 8:57, 58, fig. 27. 1866-73. I3- Mathieu Nom. Pom. 334, 343. 1889. 

 14. Guide Prat. 9, 181. 1895. 



This good, old cherry has never been considered a commercial fruit 

 in the United States; yet it is, and has been, stirprisingly poptilar with nvir- 

 serymen, most of whom for nearly a century have oflEered it for sale. A 

 generation ago, when American fruit-growing was in the hands of con- 

 noisseurs, Magnifique was more popular than now. It has failed as a 

 commercial cherry because the crop ripens very unevenly, there being 

 sometimes green and ftilly ripe cherries on the tree at the same time, though 

 the season is usually given as very late. This is one of the lightest in 

 color of the hybrid Dtikes, the Sour Cherry parent very evidently having 

 been an Amarelle — a conclusion to which both fruit and tree point. The 

 quality is usually counted as very good though it is too acid to be a first- 

 rate dessert cherry for some. The trees are very vigorous and usually 

 are frmtfvil. Magnifique has been grown so long that its place in the 

 orchard would seem to have been fixed by experience; yet it might be made 

 more than a cherry for the home orchard if some commercial grower would 

 plant it in a shaded place and a cool soil and thereby retard ripening time 

 until other cherries were gone. 



This valuable cherry was brought to notice in 1795 by Chatenay, 

 sumamed Magnifique, a nurser)rtnan ilear Paris. It seems, at first, to 

 have been quite commonly called Belle de Chatenay but Belle de Mag- 

 nifique became the commoner appellation ending in America at least with 

 the universal name " Belle Magnifique." The variety was introduced 

 into America from France sometime before 1830, by General H. A. S. 

 Dearborn, Boston, Massachusetts, President of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society. The cherry is typically a Duke sort and is so listed by 

 most writers, though Downing in 1845 placed it with the Morello cherries. 

 Magnifique was placed upon the fruit list of the American Pomological 

 Society in 1852 where it has since remained. 



