142 ROSACEA. [Prunus. 



ornament, making ,i beautiful appearance when in blossom in the early part of 

 May, and whilst the foliage is still fresh and tender. The flowers, which have a 

 faint but not unpleasant odour, resembling that of black currants, are extremely 

 shnrt-lived, and when these are past, the now full-grown leaves assume a coarse 

 wrinkled appearance, and are generally much eaten and disfigured by insects, 

 especially the larvae of Lepidoptera, to whose attacks this tree is most peculiarly 

 obnoxious. Hence the Bird Cherry makes but a shabby figure in plantations and 

 shrubberies during a great part of the summer and autumn mouths. This and 

 the Mountain Ash {Pyrus Aucuparia) are perhaps the hardiest of European trees, 

 ranging to the extremes! northern parts of that continent (lat. 70", 71°). The 

 bark is stated, and probably with reason, to contain hydrocyanic acid, as when 

 just stripped off it exhales a strong smell of bitter almonds. The fruit, called 

 Hag-berries in the North of England and Scotland, is eagerly devoured by birds, 

 though unpalatable if not hurtful to mankind, in flavour partaking somewhat of 

 black currants. 



In the species, as we find it in this island, the leaves are very finely and sharply 

 serrated, and the racemes extremely upright, not at all lax or disposed to droop in 

 that state, hence I presume it to be the variety /3. of Willdenow's Sp. PI., and 

 which seems to come very near to the P. virginiana and P. serotina of North 

 America, two species whose synonymes, if they be really distinct, which Sir Wm. 

 Hooker doubts, are almost inextricably commingled. A good impression of this 

 variety, differing merely in having the racemes a little lax, is given in Hoppe's 

 ' Ectypa Plantarum Ratisbonensium,' referred to above, a work valuable for the 

 correctness of its nomenclature and the unerring, fidelity of the plates, transcripts 

 as they are of Nature herself, however obscured in some of the minuter details, 

 from the difficulties inseparable from the process of transmitting a perfect image 

 of a dried specimen to paper. The authors of the ' Flora of North America' con- 

 sider P. serotina as quite distinct from P. virginiana, the former being a timber- 

 tree of the largest size, which neither the latter nor our European P. Padus ever 

 become. The fruit of P. Padus would appear to be occasionally red, as in P. 

 serotina, but we know that in the Wild Cherry (P. avium) this difference of colour 

 afl'ords no specific distinction, and we can bear witness to the truth of Hooker's 

 remark (Fl. Bor. Amer. i. p. 170), " how little dependence is to be placed upon 

 the foliage of our own Cerasus Padus, a species so nearly allied to this (C. sero- 

 tina, P. virginiana, Tovrey and Gray) that M. Seringe (in DeCandolle) seems to 

 doubt if it be really distinct." 



The common Cheny Laurel and Portugal Laurel of our gardens (P. Lauroce- 

 rasus and P. tusitanica) belong to this section with deciduous leaf-buds, and are 

 in fact evergreen Bird Cherries, as is the beautiful P. Caroliniana of N. America, 

 of which there is a fine specimen in the grounds of the Priory, formerly the seat 

 of the late Grose Smith, Esq. 



ff Inflorescence umbellate. 



5. p. avhtm, L. Common or Wild Cherry-tree. Vect. Merry- 

 tree. Fr. Merries. Scot. Gean-tree. Fr. Geans.* Arborescent, 

 leaves ovate ovate-oblong or oblongo-elliptical cuspidate acumi- 

 nate coarsely serrate downy beneath drooping, umbels sessile lax 

 aggregate around the leaf-buds, sepals somewhat pointed, petals 

 thin flaccid a little connivent, root scarcely stoloniferous. Linn. 

 Sp. PI. 680 ; Fl. Suec. 165. P. Cerasus, S7n. E. Fl. ii. 354 (ex 

 parte). Br. Fl. 116. Bab. Man. E. B. x. t. 706 (P. Cer.) Fl. 



* From the French, Guignier, Guigne. Merise is thought to be a contraction 

 of araere cerise, from the bitterness of the Wild Cherry. — Loud. Arb. Brit., article 

 Cerasus. 



