Some Account of a New Cherry, 145 



Writers are much divided, on the Continent, with regard to those 

 principal divisions of Cherries, of which the Griottiers form one* 

 and among which, the sort for which this was sent ought to have 

 ranked, but with which it clearly does not agree. The Griottiers 

 were formerly written Agriottiers, probably from the sharpness of 

 their juice, a quality which prevails more or less in all of them ; the 

 Morello tribe is included in that division, along with other slender 

 wooded varieties, in all of which the petioles of the leaves are short 

 and erect, compared with those of other kinds of Cherries. 



In none of these peculiarities does the Early Purple Guigne 

 accord with the Griotte tribe. Its habit is very different; the 

 petioles of its leaves instead of being short, are remarkably long and 

 slender, and consequently the leaves are drooping. But with 

 another division called by the French Guigniers, a very different 

 tribe from our Northern Geans, it agrees in every respect ; indeed, 

 there is some probability of its being the Guigne noire hdtive of 

 the Catalogue of the Messrs. Baumann, Nurserymen at Bollwiller, 

 and of the Taschenbuch ; a kind which is stated in the latter work 

 to be " A new Sort, much to be recommended ; the tree grows 

 large." We do not possess a tree with that name in the Garden, and 

 the little that is said about it is too vague to enable me to form any 

 positive opinion upon the subject. I may, however, remark that 

 M. De Candolle had his trees supplied by Messrs. Baumann, and 

 that it is certainly no other sort mentioned in their Catalogue. 



The branches are spreading, moderately strong, dark brown, and 

 sprinkled with a silvery cuticle. The leaves are oblong, drooping, 

 with waved margins, unequally and rather coarsely serrated ; the 

 veins beneath small, but sharp and prominent. The petioles are 

 long and rather slender, dark red, with numerous scattered hairs, 

 which are also found on the midrib and veins of the under sur- 

 face. The glands upon the petioles are large and reniform ; the 

 flowers appear very early, and are larger than in the generality 



