Prunus.] rosacea;. 145 



B. Med. — First found by me in a wood between Whippingham street and 

 Wootton church, but nearer to the former, and close to a place called Blankets, 

 growing plentifully within the wood at its western angle, and apparently indige- 

 nous. In rather inaccessible parts of Shanklin chine, but I think orii>inating from 

 Morello Cherry trees in a garden above, lately occupied by General Vining. 

 Abundant on an overhanging bank between Chine cottage and Rose Cliff, the 

 bushes very stout and old. Bank by the roadside from Newport to Godshill, 

 before coming to Pidford, certainly wild. Near Old Park, but perhaps planted. 

 Abundantly along the crest of a steep bank, surrounded by cornfields, about half 

 a mile W..Niton church, seeming perfectly wild. A single stout tree, 8 or 9 feet 

 high, in a very elevated and sequestered part of Appuldurcombe park, in the great 

 wood fenced sn as a preserve for game. At Godshill, on the West side, below 

 the church. Abundant in a narrow lane leading up to Frogwell near Godshill, 

 also on a high bank close to French Mill, by the roadside. 



W. Med. — Field-hedge in Gurnet bay. At Chale. About Carisbrooke, in the 

 lane leading up from thence to Buccombe down. Between Fruglands and Mount- 

 joy. In this last station it grows abundantly along the field side or crest of the 

 steep side or bank of the road on the right hand going from Froglands to Frost- 

 hills towards Mountjoy, and a short distance only from the former places. Copse 

 by Gottens. Thicket between Yafford House and Combtonfield, in some plenty. 

 Hedge on the South side of Brixton. Near Eamsdown farm." On Buccombe 

 down, the Miss Hardfields. 



That the elegant shrub now before us is what Linnasus and most, if not all, the 

 continental authors understood by his P. Cerasus, and that the syuonymes of this 

 and P. avium of the same authors have been misunderstood, and applied by Bri- 

 tish authors to slight varieties (in the fruit) of our common Wild Cherry 

 (undoubtedly the P. avium of Linn, and others), will, I think, be obvious to any 

 one who compares our present plant with the descriptions given of both by the 

 writers above quoted. There seems no reason fur supposing that any of the 

 varieties of the Wild Cherry mentioned by Smith bear reference to the species 

 now under consideration, which I believe has hitherto been overlooked, or at least 

 unrecorded as a native of Britain. 



A much and irregularly branched shrub or very small tree, from 5 or 6 to 8 or 

 10 feet in height, sending up numerous suckers from the root, rising usually with 

 several erect slender stems, from about the thickness of the middle finger to that 

 of the wrist, rarely with one or two pretty stout trunks ; covered with a reddish 

 brown or dark gray very smooth bark, transversely streaked or mottled with ashy 

 white, the extremities of the slender virgate branches cinereous. Leaves partly 

 scattered or alternate, partly fasciculate, appearing with the blossoms towards the 

 close of April, much smaller than in the last sptcies, when fully grown from about 

 li to 3^ to 4 inches in length, broadly oblongo-oliovate, or obovato-elliptical, the 

 smaller and lower frequently more or less approaching to a roundish obovate 

 figure ; shortly and abruptly cuspidato-acuminate, less coarsely and unequally, 

 almost doubly crenato-serrato, the serratures rounder or more obtuse than in the 

 last, tipped as in that with a similar point or gland, the base of the leaves, espe- 

 cially of the superior and larger, more constantly cuneiito-attenuated, seldom 

 much rounded, and never truncate, as is sometimes the case in P. avium. When 

 young the leaves are smaller and rounder than subse(|uently, folded together, var- 

 nished as it were with a gummy exudation ; of an extremely vivid bright green, 

 with little if any of the red tinge so conspicuous in those of the foregoing, unless 

 in the very earliest stage of their development, and then but occasionally ; more 

 or less hairy beneath along the midrib and natural nervures, which hairiness soon 

 disappears, and long before the leaves are full-grown they become perfectly gla- 

 brous on both sides: in this latter stage they have increased iu size, and acquired 

 a more oblong shape, with larger, more cuspidate points, a dark green colour and 

 an opaque, firm, subcoriaceous texture, which the leaves of P. avium possess in a 

 very inferior degree, nor, as in that, are the leaves of our present species at all 

 droo|iing or pendulous, but in every period of their growth erect or horizontal. 

 Petioles from half an inch to an inch long, channelled, usually without glands at 



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