C 144] 



XXI. Some account of a New Cherry, called the Early Purple 

 Guigne. By Mr. Robert Thompson, Under- Gardener in 

 the Fruit Department of the Garden of the Society. 



Read June 1, 1830. 



Th e best early Cherry hitherto known in this country has been 

 the May Duke, the merits of which will doubtless long continue to 

 be appreciated. Several others of great excellence, ripening about 

 the same time, or soon after the above, have of late been added to 

 the choicer collections of this class of fruits ; among which, in parti- 

 cular, Knight's Early Black and the Black Tartarian are of the 

 highest merit. 



But as the difficulty of procuring fruit is greater in May and the 

 beginning of June, than at any other period of the year, the Early 

 May Cherry, a worthless variety, that ripens or rather colours about 

 a week before the May Duke, has been long cultivated as its early 

 substitute, although it really does not possess a single good quality. 

 If then a sort should be produced, superior to the Early May in size 

 and quality, and which ripens even earlier, such a kind would be an 

 acquisition of the greatest importance. I have found these qualities 

 in a foreign seedling, which may be called the Early Purple Guigne. 



This variety is probably of recent origin on the Continent, and 

 its early introduction to this country by the Horticultural Society 

 was entirely accidental ; it having been received in a collection from 

 M. De Candolle of Geneva, in 1822, under the name of the 

 Griotte de Chaux, which is a late Cherry of the nature of a Morello. 

 This being the case, and its foreign name not having been found, it 

 was temporarily called, in the Garden, the Early Purple Griotte, 

 under which name it has since been distributed. 



