146 ROSACEA. [Pnmus. 



the summit, these being more commonly placed on the leaf itself at the base, or 

 not unfrequently wanting-, smaller and rounder than in P. avium, sometimes only 

 one is present. Stipules, — a pair at the base of each leafstalk, deciduous, linear, 

 glanduloso- serrate, much shorter than the petiole, with broad, dilated (not as in P. 

 avium long and subulate), green points. Scales of the leaf- and flower-buds simi- 

 lar to each other and to those of P. avium, but upright, not spreading open dur- 

 ing inflorescence, and the innermost of both assume more or less completely the 

 form of true but very diminutive leaves. Umbels lateral, but not produced on 

 short spurs, sessile or nearly so, mostly scattered, solitary or two together, seldom 

 in the really wild plant crowded or aggregated as in the foregoing, few- (2 — 4, 

 rarely 5 or 6-) flowered, with an occasional single-flowered bud interspersed. 

 Peduncles from about 9 to 16 lines jn length, round, simple, glabrous, erect, 

 spreading or deflexed, not drooping from their laxity as in P. avium, gradually 

 thickened upwards below the calyx, with one or two small, pale green, oblong, 

 deeply glanduloso-incised bracts at the base of each. Blossoms large (above an 

 inch across), white, faintly but agreeably scented, very strikingly contrasting with 

 the lisrht vivid green of the young leaves ; always produced considerably later (10 

 or 14 days) in the season than those of the common Wild Cherry. Cali/x as in 

 P. avium, but far less suddenly contracted below the broader, much more obtuse 

 and rounded, strongly deflexed segments, which are scarcely J the length of the 

 petals, and furnished for the most part with a few distant creuate serratures, quite 

 wanting in the other. Petals cordato-rotundate, firm, concave, waved, veiny, 

 slightly emarginate, spreading widely (not flaccid as in P. avium), with very short 

 minute claws. Ovary oblong, glabrous. Stamens, style and stigma exactly as in 

 the last. Fruit (drupe) small, subdepresso-globose, scarcely cordate, red, juicy 

 and acid, ripening very late, and sparingly produced in the wild state, at least in 

 this island. 



Prunus Cerasus, the Cerisier and Griothier of the French, the Saverkirschen or 

 Weichselbaum of the Germans, is the parent stock of the various kinds of late 

 acid Cherries, the Kentish and Flemish Cherries, the Morello and May Dukes 

 (the last said to be a corruption of Medoc, a famous wine district near Bordeaux), 

 and numerous minor varieties. A very ornamental double-flowered sort is fre- 

 quent in gardens. 



Some of the continental botanists subdivide our P. Cerasus into two species, 

 disiinffuished by the colour of the fruit and the upright or drooping branches, but 

 the alleged differences are so slight, and the synonymes so confused and recipro- 

 cally applied to each by diSerent authors, as to evince the indetermintate charac- 

 ters on which they are founded. That taken from the presence or absence of 

 glands on the leaves cannot be relied upon. 



Mr. Borrer considers the root of P. avium to be creeping, but if so it is certainly 

 in a different way from this. I find my observations on the roots of these two 

 cherries were long since anticipated by Fries, who says, speaking of P. avium, 

 " Badice palari, nunquam repente a prioris Ibrmis eximie repentibus et stolonife- 

 ris certissime dignoscitur," {Fries, Corpus Flor. Provin.-Suec. i. — Scanica,p. 110).* 



* The strange confusion and misapprehension which till very lately prevailed 

 amongst nearly all British, and even some foreign botanists, with respect to this 

 and the foregoing most palpably distinct species of Cherry, have been remarked 

 upon by me in the additions and corrections to Leigliton's ' Flora of Shropshire,' 

 and in the ' Supplement to English Botany,' as quoted above. Those observa- 

 tions it is unnecessary here to repeat ; a few words however on the same subject 

 may not be deemed superfluous, when we see so accurate and laborious a writer 

 as Bertolini still regarding these trees as mere varieties of each other, and perceive 

 a reluctance to admit them as distinct in more than one of our leading botanists 

 in this country. 



Much of the confusion attendant on the discrimination of P. avium and P. 

 Cerasus has, I think, arisen from two principal causes : 1st, the partial dislribu- 

 liou of the latter in the wild state; and 2ndly, the habit which has prevailed with 



