178 THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 



Buds small, short, usually obtuse, plump, free, arranged as lateral buds and in small 

 clusters on short spurs; leaf -scars pronmient; season of bloom medium; flowers one inch 

 across, white; borne in scattering clusters, in twos and threes; pedicels five-eighths of 

 an inch long, rather slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green with a faint tinge of 

 red, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes with a trace of red, rather long, serrate, glabrous within 

 and without, reflexed; petals obovate, entire, nearly sessile, apex entire; filaments one- 

 foiirth inch long; pistil glabrous, nearly equal in length to the stamens. 



Fruit matures very late; nearly three-fourths of an inch in diameter, roundish to 

 slightly oblate, compressed; cavity very shallow and narrow, flaring; suture indistinct; 

 apex roundish with a small depression at the center; color very dark red approaching 

 black; dots numerous, small, dark russet, inconspicuous; stem slender, one and one-fourth 

 inches long, but slightly adherent to the fruit; skin thin, tender, separating readily from 

 the pulp ; flesh dark red, with much very dark colored juice, tender and melting, sprightly, 

 tart, losing its astringency when ftilly ripe; of fair quality; stone free, nearly one-half inch 

 in diameter, roundish-oblate, somewhat pointed, with smooth surfaces slightly stained 

 with red. 



OX HEART 



Prunus avium 



I. Mi]ler Card. Kal. 15^. 1734. 2. Christ Handb. 663. 1797. 3. Bvookshaw Hort. Reposit. 1:36, 

 PI. 18 fig. 2. 1817. 4. Coxe Cult. Fr. Trees 249. 1817. 5. Truchsess-Heim Kirschensort. 132-135. 

 1819. 6. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 176. 1845. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 244. 1858. 8. Mas Pom. Gen. 

 11:57, 58, fig- 29. 1882. 9. Oberdieck Obst-Sort. 365, 366. 1882. 10. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 339, 371. 

 1889. 



Bigarreau Cros Commun. 11. Mag. Hort. g: 203. 1843. 



Ox Heart is very commonly used as a class name for the large, meaty 

 varieties of cherries which are cordate in shape. In America the name is 

 most often given to the light-fieshed cherries, such as Yellow Spanish, 

 Napoleon or White Bigarreau. At one time, however, the name was 

 appUed to a distinct variety known throughout England, Germany and 

 America, being first mentioned by Miller, an Englishman, in 1734. Coxe, 

 in 1 81 7, was the first American writer to Hst the variety but it never 

 became popular in the New World. Ox Heart appeared among the fruits 

 rejected by the American Pomological Society in 1858 and from then on 

 it gradually gave way to better varieties. The synonyms of the true Ox 

 Heart are badly confused not only with other dark-fleshed varieties but 

 with those of the Yellow Spanish type. As some of these varieties are 

 merely Hsted while others have but a meager description, it is impossible 

 to separate or group them with any degree of certainty. In the 1909 

 catalog of the American Pomological Society there appears an Ox Heart 

 of American origin and of recent introduction, known in the West as Major 

 Francis. There are also in several nursery catalogs a " white-fieshed Ox 



