THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 1 79 



Heart." What this variety is we are lonable to say. The following is a 

 description of Ox Heart compiled from Etiropean fruit books: 



Tree meditun in vigor, round-topped, spherical, productive; branches somewhat 

 curved; internodes of medium length; leaves obovate, obtusely pointed, margin finely 

 serrate; petiole short, rather slender, flexible, tinged red, with two reniform glands; flowers 

 small; petals irregularly elliptical. 



Fruit matures the last of June or early in July; medium to large, cordate, pointed, 

 sides unevenly compressed; color lively red changing to intense purple or nearly black; 

 stem of medium length and thickness, usually tinged red, inserted in a broad, deep cavity; 

 skin tough; flesh dark red, with abundant colored juice, half -tender but firmer than most 

 Hearts, sweet though slightly bitter before complete maturity; quality good; stone mediiam 

 in size, broadly cordate, adhering to the flesh along the ventral suture. 



REINE HORTENSE 



Prunus avium X Prunus cerasus 



I. Gen. Farmer 11:191 fig. 1850. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 55. 1856. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 211. 

 1856. 3. Dochnahl Fuhr. Obstkunde 3:54. 1858. 4. ///. Handb. 167 fig., 168. i860. 5. Thomas 

 Guide Prat. 17, 204. 1876. 6. Leroy Diet. Pom. 5:379-382, fig 1877. 



D'Aremberg. 7. Land. Hort. Soc. Cat. 45. 1831. 8. Kenrick Am. Orch. 215. 1835. 



Hortense. 9. Elliott Fr. Book 196, 197 fig. 1854. 10. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 27. 1909. 



Were there not so many good Duke varieties of its season Reine Hor- 

 tense would take high rank among hybrid cherries. Several qualities fit 

 it admirably for home and somewhat for commercial plantations. To 

 begin with, it is most excellent in quality, its flavor being a commingling 

 of the refreshing acidity of the Sour Cherry and the richness of the Sweet 

 Cherry, though to some there may be a little too much acidity for a first- 

 class dessert frtiit. The cherries are also handsome — large, rotmd, bright, 

 glossy red with a shade of amber and very uniform in size, color and 

 shape. The fruit is especially attractive on the tree as it hangs on long 

 stems in twos and threes thickly scattered and never much clustered. 

 Unfortunately the fruit does not stand handling in harvesting and marketing 

 quite as well as that of some other Dukes and is a little too susceptible to 

 brown-rot for a good commercial cherry. The chief faults of the variety, 

 however, are in the trees rather than in the fruit. The trees are but of 

 medium size, are not as productive as some others of the hybrid sorts, are 

 at their best only in choice cherry soils and demand good care. In Europe, 

 Reine Hortense is much used as a dwarf and for training on walls. It 

 would seem that its merits and faults, as it grows in America, are such as 

 fit it preeminently well only for the amateur. 



Of the several accounts of the origin of Reine Hortense the one giving 



