90 THE CHERRY. 



Belle de Choist. — "We have given this variety a pkce, he- 

 cEtuse in poiat of flavor it is one of the hest if not the hest of this 

 section; hut it is such a very shy hearer in all our experience and 

 ohservation, that we cannot advise any one to plant it. Yet when 

 the fruit can he had there is no cherry more delicious; it is of 

 medium size, hright red in the sun, pale amber in the shade; 

 flesh very tender, melting, juicy, and of a most delicate and 

 agreeable flavor. It ripens about the first of July. 



Belle Magnifique. — The chief excellence of this variety is 

 its lateness of ripening, it being in. use about the middle of 

 August. The fruit is of good size, bright red, with a juicy, ten- 

 der flesh, of a sprightly, sub-acid flavor. It is desirable for cook- 

 ing, and when allowed to remain on the tree until very ripe, is 

 a pretty good dessert fruit. The tree is moderately vigorous in 

 ■ growth and an abundant bearer. We have found this variety to 

 be exceedingly liable to the attacks of the cuiculio in our grounds, 

 we think the most so of all the cherries. 



Kentish. — Early Richmond. — Common Bed. — Pie Cherry. 

 — Montmorency. — An old European variety introduced by the 

 early settlers, and coming so nearly true from seed and yet some- 

 times varying so much that from all these shades of variation 

 there has arisen considerable confusion. "We notice that Mr. 

 Downing, in his exhaustive work on the feuits and fruit trees of 

 America, makes a second kind, which he calls the Late Kentish, 

 but we have been unable to find any really permanent and dis- 

 tinguishing differences, so imperceptibly do these all glide into 

 one another. Those that seem to ripen earliest will hang on the 

 tree and continue as long as the latest, while in general appear- 

 ance, size, color, flavor, productiveness and hardihood they seem 

 to be substantially the same. Undoubtedly, taking all things into 

 consideration, it is the most valuable of all the cherries that can 

 be grown in the Dominion of Canada. In the first place, it is the 

 most hardy variety, capable of enduring a very severe degree of 

 cold, and of accommodating itself to any variety of soil, fi?om the 

 stiffest clay to the lightest sand. Then it is a very constant and 



