\, 



Chap. X. CHERRIES. 347 



tions also repeatedly tried in vain to grow this variety in a sandy district 

 in Staffordshire. 



Mr. Eivers has given 77 a number of interesting facts, showing how truly 

 many varieties can be propagated by seed. He sowed the stones of twenty 

 bushels of the greengage for the sake of raising stocks, and closely observed 

 the seedlings ; " all had the smooth shoots, the prominent buds, and the 

 glossy leaves of the greengage, but the greater number had smaller leaves 

 and thorns." There are two kinds of damson, one the Shropshire 

 with downy shoots, and the other the Kentish with smooth shoots, and 

 these differ but slightly in any other respect : Mr. Eivers sowed some 

 bushels of the Kentish damson, and all the seedlings had smooth shoots, 

 but in some the fruit was oval, in others round or roundish, and in a few 

 the fruit was small, and, except in being sweet, closely resembled that of 

 the wild sloe. Mr. Eivers gives several other striking instances of inhe- 

 ritance: thus, he raised eighty thousand seedlings from the common 

 German Quetsche plum, and " not one could be found varying in the 

 least, in foliage or habit." Similar facts were observed with the Petite 

 Mirabelle plum, yet this latter kind (as well as the Quetsche) is known 

 to have yielded some well-established varieties ; but, as Mr. Eivers remarks, 

 they all belong to the same group with the Mirabelle. 



Cherries (Primus cerasus, avium, &c). — Botanists believe that our culti- 

 vated cherries are descended from one, two, four, or even more wild stocks. 78 

 That there must be at least two parent-species we may infer from the 

 sterility of twenty hybrids raised by Mr. Knight from the morello fertilized 

 by pollen of the Elton cherry ; for these hybrids produced in all only five 

 cherries, and one alone of these contained a seed. 79 Mr. Thompson 80 has 

 classified the varieties in an apparently natural method in two main groups 

 by characters taken from the flowers, fruit, and leaves ; but some varieties 

 which stand widely separate in this classification are quite fertile when 

 crossed ; thus Knight's Early Black cherry is the product of a cross between 

 two such kinds. 



Mr. Knight states that seedling cherries are more variable than those 

 of any other fruit-tree. 81 In the Catalogue of the Horticultural Society 

 for 1842, eighty varieties are enumerated. Some varieties present singular 

 characters: thus the flower of the Cluster cherry includes as many as 

 twelve pistils, of which the majority abort; and they are said generally to 

 produce from two to five or six cherries aggregated together and borne on 

 a single peduncle. In the Eatafia cherry several flower-peduncles arise from 

 a common peduncle, upwards of an inch in length. The fruit of Gascoigne's 

 Heart has its apex produced into a globule or drop : that of the white 



77 'Gardener's Chronicle,' 1863, p. Targioni-Tozzetti, in 'Hort. Journal,' 



27. Sageret, in Ms ' Pomologie Phys.,' vol. ix. p. 163 ; Godron, « De l'Espece,' 



p. 346, enumerates five kinds which can torn, ii p 92 



be propagated in France by seed : see ™ < Transact Hort. Soo.,' vol. v., 



also Downmg's ' Fruit Trees of Ame- 1824 p 295 



rica ' p. 305, 812 &c so i^ second serieg> voh i<? 18B ^ 



pi- 78 Compare Alph. De Candolle, p. 248. 



' Ge'ograph. Bot.,' p. 877 ; Bentham and si j^ vol iu 13g 



