378 THE CHERRY TREE. 
wild in the north of Scotland, along the cliffs of the Findhorn, 
and other romantic rivers and streams of the same character, 
and often shoots from the crevices of rocks in a picturesque 
figure. Nothing can be more beautiful than the purity and 
richness of its blossoms in spring, or more brilliant than the 
gorgeous hue of its foliage in autumn. 
Some fine specimens of this tree are to be seen in Ross- 
shire. On the approach to Rosehaugh House, the seat of James 
Fletcher, Esq., in a mixed plantation of magnificent timber, 
stand some of the largest cherry trees of various species that 
are to be found in the north of Scotland. Here the common 
wild cherry ranges from fifty to sixty feet in height, and some 
are upwards of eight feet in girth, and quite vigorous. One 
of these trees forms a very conspicuous object, by extending a 
comparatively small branch, suspending over the roadway a 
large bunch or cluster apparently four or five feet long, and a 
yard in diameter, of close twiggy vegetation, of quite a differ- 
ent character from that of the common tree, the twigs and 
leaves being less than half the size of the species, and all of 
spontaneous growth. Instances of this sort are frequently 
observable in the growth of the birch, the purple laburnum, 
etc., but such rarely occur with the cherry. 
The tree is raised from the stones of the fruit, which are 
the seeds; the stones also of all the cultivated or garden 
cherries produce the wild tree. When collected, they should 
be mixed up with double their bulk of sand or dry earth, and 
may be sown any time from November to February. ‘The 
cover should be one inch deep. Some of the plants commonly 
appear in the end of the ensuing spring; but it not unfre- 
quently happens, that owing to the stones not becoming suffi- 
ciently decomposed, many of the seeds lie dormant until the 
second spring, when the principal crop appears. The plants 
should, at the end of their first year’s growth, be lifted from 
the seed-bed and transplanted in nursery lines two feet apart, 
and the plants six or eight inches asunder in the lines. When 
two years transplanted, they are commonly about four or five 
feet high, and are fit for being transplanted into the forest. 
