322 
plii^t's natueal histoet. 
[Book XV. 
with nearly all the berries. From white, some of the berries 
pass, to green, the olive and the laurel, for instance ; while in 
the mulberry, the cherry, and the cornel, the change is to red ; 
and then in some to black, as with the mulberry, the cherry, 
and the olive, for instance. 
CHAP. 30. (25.) — I^^INE VAEIETIES OF THE CHEEEY. 
The cherry did not exist in Italy before the period of the 
victory gained over Mithridates by L. LucuUus, in the year 
of the City 680. He was the first to introduce this tree from 
Pontus, and now, in the course of one hundred and twenty 
years, it has travelled beyond the Ocean, and arrived in Bri- 
tannia even. The cherry, as we have already stated, in spite 
of every care, it has been found impossible to rear in Egypt. 
Of this fruit, that known as the Apronian" is the reddest 
variety, the Lutatian^' being the blackest, and the Csecilian^^ 
perfectly round. The Junian'^ cherry has an agreeable flavour, 
but only, so to say, when eaten beneath the tree, as they are 
so remarkably delicate that they will not bear carrying. The 
highest rank, however, has been awarded to the duracinus^" 
variety, known in Campania as the " Plinian"^^ cherry, and in 
Belgica to the Lusitanian^^ cherry, as also to one that grows 
on the banks of the Ehenus. This last kind has a third 
colour, being a mixture^^ of black, red, and green, and has 
always the appearance of being just on the turn to ripening. 
It is less than five years since the kind known as the ^' laurel- 
cherry" was introduced, of a bitter but not unpleasant flavour, 
He must allude to what he has stated in B. xii. c. 3, for he has no- 
where said that the cherry will not grow in Egypt. It is said that the 
cherry is not to be found in Egypt at the present day. 
'6 The gnotte cherry of the Erench, the mazzard of the English. 
"^^ A variety of the mazzard, Fee thinks. 
Some take this for the Cerasus Juliana, the guignier of the French, . 
our white heart ; others, again, for the merisier, our morello 
It is most generally thought that this is the Cerasus avium of bota- 
nists, our morello, which is a very tender cherry. 
80 Qj. a liard berry," the Prunus bigarella of Linnseus, the red biga- 
roon. 
51 Fee queries whether it may not have received its name of " Pliniaua " 
in compliment to our author, or one of his family. 
52 Hardouin thinks that this Portuguese cherry is the griotte, or maz- 
zard. 
s'-^ No such cherry is known at the present day. 
