OUR COMMON FRUIT TREES 



Discovered" says: "It was not long before I left 

 the Country that I made Cherry Wine, and so may 

 others for there are a good store of them both 

 red and black. Their fruit trees are subject to two 

 diseases, the Meazels, which is when they are burned 

 and scorched with the sun, and lowsiness when the 

 woodpeckers jab holes in their bark; the way to cure 

 them when they are lowsie is to bore a hole in the 

 main root with an augur, and pour in a quantity of 

 Brandie or Rhum and then stop it up with a pin 

 made of the same tree." 



In China Cherries are the product of Prunus 

 pseudocerasus, a small tree, wild in the woods of the 

 province of Hupeh, central China. It is not very 

 hardy but is cultivated over a considerable area in 

 China, and also in the warmer parts of Korea and 

 southern Manchuria. Formerly it was much grown 

 in Japan, but its place has been taken by European 

 Cherries. The Chinese Cherry is a red, sweet 

 fruit of little flavour, suggesting a White Heart 

 Cherry in miniature. It was introduced into Eng- 

 land about 1822 but was soon lost or nearly so. It 

 has not proved hardy in the Arnold Arboretum but 

 has fruited in Chico, California. 



Much more valuable is the Bush-cherry (P. 

 tomentosa), a common wild shrub in central and 

 western China and much cultivated in northern China, 



217 



