BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
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GENUS III. 
THE CHERRY. (Cerasus, Tourn.) 
Lin. Syst. ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Vernation conduplicate. Drupe not covered with bloom, with a smooth stone not furrowed at its inner edge. ( Lindl.) 
Description, &c. — I have already, when speaking of the Plum, mentioned what a slight difference 
there is between the Cherry and the Plum. The word Cerasus is derived from the ancient name of a 
town in Asia, whence the cultivated Cherry was first brought to Rome by Lucullus, a Roman general, 
sixty-eight years before Christ. The genus is in the same Linmean class and order as the preceding one ; 
as, in fact, both were included in one by Linnaeus. 
I.—THE WILD CHERRY. (Cerasus avium, Mcench.) 
Synonyme. —Prunus Cerasus, Lin. 
Engravings. — Eng. Bot., t. 70(1 ; 2nd ed., t. 689; and onrfig. 2, 
in PL 31. 
Specific Character. —Flowers in nearly sessile umbels. Leaves 
ovate-lanceolate, or obovate with a point, with two glands at the base 
( Lindley.) 
Description, &c. —There are two quite distinct trees known under the name of the Wild Cherry-tree in 
Great Britain. One of these (C. sylvestris , Ray) has black fruit, and is known by the name of the Merries or 
Merry-tree in some parts of England, and the Gean or Corone in others. The flesh of this Cherry is always 
firm, and sometimes bitter, and the skin is generally thick and tough, and will not separate from the fleshy part 
of the fruit. The stone is very large, and adheres firmly to the flesh. The colour of the fruit is either black or 
yellow. The other kind of Wild Cherry (C. vulgaris , Milk) is commonly called the Kentish, or Flemish 
Cherry. The flesh is very soft and juicy, and the skin may be readily separated from it; it also separates 
easily from the stone; and its taste, in a wild state, is sour. The colour of the fruit is red. This species is 
most common in the southern and eastern counties of England, particularly Kent; while the Gean is most 
abundant in the north. 
Though I have not been able to find any poetry distinctly relating to the Cherry, nothing can be more 
common than allusions to it in poetical descriptions of beauty ; and the beautiful lines Shakspeare has put into 
the mouth of Helena in her address to Hermia, will be familiar to every one :— 
« * * * g 0 we grew together, 
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted; 
But yet a union in partition, 
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.” 
The Feast of the Cherries at Hamburg, is not, however, so generally known. The origin of this feast is said 
to be as follows :•—“ In 1432, when the city of Hamburg was besieged by the Hussites, one of the citizens 
named Wolf proposed that all the children in the city, between seven and fourteen years of age, should be clad 
in mourning, and sent as suppliants to the enemy. Procopius Nasus, Chief of the Hussites, was so much moved 
by this spectacle, that he not only promised to spare the city, but regaled the young suppliants with cherries and 
other fruits ; and the children returned crowned with leaves, shouting ‘ AHctory! ’ and holding boughs laden 
with cherries in their hands.”— Arb. Brit. 
The Wild Cherry is one of the most ornamental of the British trees ; and the bitter-fruited kind, or Gean, 
which frequently grows forty or fifty feet high, as its flowers are large and very abundant, has a beautiful effect 
