CHERRIES. 



23 



in leaves, buds, branches, general habits, etc., of hybrids between 

 the apricot and the plum. The}- are all grafted upon seedling plum 

 stock. 



A species of very hardy wild plum occurs in northern Korea and 

 eastern Siberia. It is tall and shrubby in growth, is found in high 

 meadows or among bowlders, and bears large quantities of very sour 

 blue plums of medium size. (S. P. I. Xos. 20073 and 20343.) 



CHERRIES. 



[Chinese name, " Ying tao'rh/"] 



The real sweet cherries (Primus avium) do not seem to occur in 

 northern and eastern China, but instead of them they have in the 

 moist, mild- wintered 

 regions of the Yang- 

 tze Valley the ordi- 

 nary Chinese sour 

 cherries (P run us 

 pseudo-cerasus) , the 

 fruit of which is 

 rather small and gen- 

 erally sour but very 

 early. 



An example of this 

 earliness is found in 

 the fact that a scion 

 of one of these cher- 

 ries (a sweet variety) 

 was grafted in the 

 spring of 1906 upon 

 an ordinary Mazzard 

 cherry in the United 

 States Plant Intro- 

 duction Garden at Chico, Cal., and the following year it bore fruit 

 which was half grown on April 12, at a time when other cherries were 

 just in bloom. (S. P. I. No. 18587.) 



The most common cherries in northern China are the ''bush cher- 

 ries" (Prunus tomcntosa) (fig. 8). These grow wild in the mountains 

 of northern China, Manchuria, and Korea, and are found in dry, 

 rocky places. In a wild state they are densely branched shrubs, 

 bearing very small red fruit ; the leaves are very tomentose. "When 

 cultivated, however, the plants become less dense in growth, the 

 leaves lose their hairiness to a great extent, and the fruit becomes 

 larger. There are varieties having fruit large enough to be worth 

 consideration as a dessert fruit for localities where our ordinary 



204 



Fig. 8.— A heavily loaded branch of a large-fruited variety of the 

 Chinese "bush cherry" (Prunus tomentosa) in a garden in Fong- 

 whangcheng, Manchuria. Introduction Nos. 16918, 17732, 17733, 

 20075, 20240, 20287, 2028S, and 21924. 



