ROSACEA. 



237 



more abundant and more marked in south-eastern Europe and central 

 Asia than with us. The JBullace, the Damson, and the numerous va- 

 rieties of Plum, of our gardens, although growing into thornless trees, 

 are believed to be varieties of the Blackthorn, produced by long cul- 

 tivation; they will occasionally sow themselves, and may be found 

 apparently wild in the neighbourhood of gardens and orchards, retain- 

 ing their arborescent character. Some botanists distinguish these 

 varieties as a species, under the name of P. domestica (Eng. Bot. 

 t, 1783). 



2. Cherry Primus. Prunus Cerasus, Linn. (Eig. 294.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 706, and Suppl. t. 2863.) 



The Cherry, when wild, is often a 

 mere shrub of 6 or 8 feet, throwing out 

 suckers from its creeping roots, or more 

 properly rhizomes ; but in cultivation, 

 and often, also, in a really wild state, 

 it will form a tree of considerable size. 

 Stipules narrow, often toothed and glan- 

 dular, but very deciduous. Leaves ovate 

 or ovate-lanceolate, and toothed, 2 to 4 

 inches long, usually with 1 or 2 glands 

 at the top of the stalk or on the edge of 

 the blade, near the base ; but they are 

 sometimes wanting on the same speci- 

 men. Flowers white, on pedicels from 

 1 to 2 inches long, in bunches of 2, 3, or 

 more, issuing together from leafless buds, 

 surrounded by brown scales, of which the inner ones often become 

 green and leaf-like at the tips. Eruit globular and smooth, red or 

 black, usually without bloom. 



In woods, thickets, and hedgerows, in central and southern Europe 

 and temperate Asia, extending northwards into Scandinavia, but has 

 been in so many places introduced by cultivation, that its precise limits 

 can scarcely be fixed. Generally dispersed over England, Ireland, and 

 southern Scotland, but in many cases truly indigenous. Fl. spring. 

 There are several more or less permanent varieties in cultivation, which 

 are variously distributed by different botanists into several species, of 

 which P. avium, for the tree variety, without suckers, and P. Cerasus 

 for the shrubby form, are generally adopted ; but none of the charac- 

 ters given appear to be constant in a wild state. 



Fig. 294. - 



