Keegan : The Wild Cherry. 



221 



Flower and Fruit. — The epidermis of the corolla consists 

 mostly of oblong - cells with sinuous walls, and without papillae or 

 stomata. The tree flowers abundantly every year towards ist 

 April in southern parts (ist May in the Lake district). A large 

 quantity of rutin seems to be the most distinctive outcome of the 

 protoplasmic energy, but it does not develop into volatile oil, 

 tannin, or anthocyan, indicating- the lightness of the tissues, the 

 feeble development of the conducting- apparatus, and a deficiency 

 of oxidation. Askenasy found that the flower buds doubled 

 their weig-ht in the last ten days previous to bursting-. The 

 fruiting, which is not constant or sustained even in warm 

 climates, reaches maturity about 15th June. The ovary consists 

 of some 25 to 30 layers ; and the ripe fruit (drupe) is composed 

 of (1) an external epidermis (epicarp) ; (2) a hypodermis of two 

 or three layers ; (3) the flesh (mesocarp) formed of two layers, 

 the external one of spheroidal cells, the internal of radially 

 extended parenchymatous cells ; and (4) a nucleus (endocarp) 

 divisible into an outer zone of sclerous cells and an inner zone of 

 tangential fibres. The general fact is that the thick cotyledons 

 of the seed contain aleurone and oil, but no starch, and the 

 slightly developed endosperm is of the same nature ; the oil 

 amounts to about 23 per cent, of the kernel. The seed also con- 

 tains amygdalin along with its ferment emulsin, and hence, when 

 bruised and distilled with water, bitter almond oil and prussic 

 acid are obtained. The flesh of the ripe fruit tastes sweet when 

 it contains sugar (mostly cane-sugar, with a little glucose and 

 sorbite), and tastes bitter when the volatile oil, pectin, vegetable 

 acids, and tannin are more predominant ; the epicarp is tinged 

 by a red pigment which, with acetate of lead, yields a blue preci- 

 pitate, and, as Rochleder stated in 1870, 'in all probability it is a 

 decomposition product of the tannin present in the unripe cherry.' 



Summary. — It is not very easy to grasp the precise physiolo- 

 gical complexion, so to speak, of the Wild Cherry. ' It appears,' 

 says Wigand, 'to possess a great inclination to a partial demise 

 no! only of the rind itself, but also of the wood elements.' The 

 remarkable form of lignification attested by the formation of the 

 hornbast, the thickening of the cell wall prior to the production 

 of the gum, the astonishing tenacity and durability of its 

 periderm stand in marked contrast to the strain requisite for 

 extensive seed generation, and to the great activity of its grow th 

 up to fifty years of age. The main chemico-physiologlC tact is 

 the presence in unusual quantity of two substances, viz., gum 

 and phloroglucin, the former educed by the disorganisation of 

 products of assimilation, the latter by the decomposition of 

 products of deassimilation. 



1900 July 2. 



