1 68 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



behavior of the variety in New York, the tree and fruit from which the 

 accompanying description was made have so many merits that one can well 

 wish that the variety will not wholly pass out of cultivation. 



This variety was found at Mezel, Puy-de-D6me, France, by M. Ligier 

 sometime prior to 1846 when it was brought to notice. Even so, it had 

 grown in a vineyard at that place for thirty years and was only made public 

 after an excursion of several members of a horticultural society to the 

 vineyard. It was immediately heralded as a coming variety and grafts 

 were distributed. Great Bigarreau, which made its appearance a few 

 years later, is here included as a synonym though many writers list it as 

 a distinct sort. Bigarreau Monstrueux, first listed in the London Horti- 

 cultural Society catalog for 1 831, is held by many pomologists to be identical 

 with Mezel which, if true, casts some doubt on the generally accepted history 

 of the variety. Mezel appeared on the fruit list of the American Pomo- 

 logical Society in 1862 but was discarded in 1869; it was replaced in 1883 

 and is still on the list though it is scarcely known in any part of the United 

 States. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, variable in productiveness; trunk 

 stocky, nearly smooth; branches thick, smooth, reddish-brown partly overspread with 

 dark ash-gray, with lenticels medivun in number and size; branchlets of average thick- 

 ness, variable in length, with intemodes of medium length, brown partly covered with 

 ash-gray, smooth, glabrous, with small, inconspicuous, raised lenticels medium in 

 niunber. 



Leaves niraierous, five inches long, often two and one-half inches wide, long-oval, 

 thin; upper stirface dark green, strongly rugose giving a crumpled appearance; lower 

 surface dull, light green, with slight pubescence; apex varies from abrupt to taper-pointed, 

 base abrupt; margin glandular, coarsely serrate; petiole long, averaging one and one-half 

 inches, slender, tinged with red, with from one to four reniform glands of medium size 

 on the petiole. 



Buds intermediate in size and length, pltimp, pointed, arranged singly as lateral 

 buds or in clusters of various sizes on both long and short spurs; leaf -scars prominent; 

 season of bloom intermediate; flowers one and seven-sixteenths inches across, well dis- 

 tributed in scattering clusters in twos and threes; pedicels one and one-eighth inches 

 long, medivun in thickness, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube with a slight tinge of red, cam- 

 panulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes long, medium in width, acute, slightly serrate, glabrous 

 within and without; petals somewhat obovate, crenate, nearly sessile, with a very shallow 

 notch at the apex; anthers yellow; filaments shorter than the petals; pistil glabrous, 

 shorter than the stamens, often defective. 



Fruit matures in mid-season; large, seven-eighths inch long, thirteen-sixteenths inch 

 wide, cordate, compressed, the surface markedly irregular and broken into ridges; cavity 

 very deep, wide, irregular, abrupt; suture variable, shallow to very deep and wide and 



