THE CHERRY. 



265 



also this further recommendation as a nurse to 

 the Oak^ that^ although a quick-growing plant 

 while youngs and fulfilling the duty of a pro- 

 tector, it naturally yields to the tree it has fos- 

 tered, after the first twenty or thirty years of 

 its growth, and is afterwards content to vegetate 

 beneath its shade. By producing suckers in 

 abundance, it also furnishes a plantation with 

 a profitable underwood, which may be cut once 

 every five, six, ten, or more years, according to 

 the purposes to which it is to be applied."^ 



Those botanists who are of opinion that Lu- 

 cullus only introduced new kinds of Cherries 

 into Europe, consider this species a native, and 

 not without reason; for it grows freely and abun- 

 dantly in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, 

 Russia, the ^lediterranean islands. Great Bri- 

 tain and Ireland, attaining a larger size in the 

 north than in the south. Nevertheless, its general 

 diff'usion and apparent wildness of grovrth is not 

 conclusive evidence in favour of its beincr con- 

 sidered a native of these countries. It has been 

 remarked by M. le Conte, that in America, when 

 Beech woods are cut down, they are speedily 

 replaced by Cherry-trees. He accounts for this 

 on the supposition, that birds, who eat the fruit 

 with avidity, may have resorted to the woods 

 for shelter, and there dropped the stones, which 

 either lay dormant, or germinated and remained 

 in a diminutive state until the Beeches were cut 

 down, when they advanced rapidly, and finally 

 became the principal occupants of the soil. Now, 

 if the Cherry-tree has become thus thoroughly 



* Selby's British Forest Trees. 



