362 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The general arrangement of the work follows closely that of the 

 preceding volumes. The species of Cerasus are first described and 

 an account of their geographical distribution is given. 



The history of the cherry and cultural matters, such as stocks 

 for grafting &c, follow, and the important descriptions of varieties 

 make up the bulk of the work. 



The species of Cerasus are illustrated by flowering shoots in which 

 the young leaves are but slightly expanded, and we think a young 

 shoot showing the characteristic leaf shape and pose would have 

 been useful to students, as leaf characters can be observed over a 

 long period. 



In discussing P. Avium the author gives its height at 30 to 

 40 feet. This must, we presume, refer to its growth in the United 

 States, as in this country many trees are known of 90 feet in height, 

 and the average stature of a fully-grown tree would be about 60 feet. 

 He also says that "P. Avium suckers little or not at all." This 

 is, we think, incorrect. In Britain cherries are so much grown on 

 grass that suckers are grazed off or killed by the grass as soon as they 

 appear, but in woods large colonies of young plants may be found 

 around old trees. 



The chapters devoted to cultural matters will repay careful 

 perusal, especially that on stocks. It is interesting to note that 

 95 per cent, of the cherries grown in the States are worked on the 

 Mahaleb. 



The subject of pollination is briefly dealt with, as the author deduces 

 from the behaviour of isolated trees that the cherry is the most 

 nearly self-fertile of all fruit trees. This opinion, and the fact that 

 cherries that are sterile in Oregon are perfectly self-fertile in the New 

 York State, should give pause to those who treat pollination as the 

 main factor in fruit production. 



The chief interest of the work lies in the systematic descriptions 

 of varieties, and these are done in the most detailed manner. The 

 botanical characters, the individual habits, and the commercial value 

 of each are discussed at length. The historical notes are extremely 

 interesting, though in some cases we cannot always agree with the 

 author. It is, for instance, very doubtful if ' Tradescant's Cherry,' or 

 ' Elkhorn,' as it is called in America, was raised by Tradescant himself. 

 It is far more likely to be a Continental variety, found by him on 

 his travels. We also note that the author has not considered this 

 fruit as identical with * Noble,' a fruit of recent introduction, but 

 which is without doubt the 'St. Margaret's' or 'Tradescant's Cherry' 

 rechristened. 



For 'Ludwig's Bigarreau' the origin is incorrectly stated, the author 

 being probably misled by Leroy, who in his" Dictionnaire de Pomo- 

 logie," quotes from " The Florist and Pomologist " "obtenue de semis 

 . . . par Thomas Rivers." A reference, however, to the original 

 text shows that this is a mistranslation for" introduced by T. Rivers." 

 The real source of this cherry is apparently unrecorded by any 

 pomologist. 



