[Entered according to 
Act of Congress, in the year 1875. by the Rural Publishing Company, in t he office of the Librarian Of Congress at Washi ng ton.] 
fnmolugital. 
QUESTIONS TOUCHING TWO CHERRIES. 
Repeatedly we have had correspondents 
asking us of the actual value of two varie¬ 
ties of cherries of which F. R. Elliott has 
written, and described as of value once they 
become known. We have asked Fir. Elli¬ 
ott to give us a word or two of what he 
practically knows of these cherries. The 
varieties named are “ Louis Phillippe ”—said 
to be an old sort of value—at least so counted 
by Mr. Elliott in the following description 
which he gives, while the “ Katie” is a seed¬ 
ling of his own origin, and yet little known. 
Mr. Elliott says as follows :—“ I import¬ 
ed the variety named Louis Phillippe from 
Leroy of Angers, France, in, I think, 1848. 
The tree I first had now stands, as I believe, 
upon the grounds which 1 then occupied, 
and were in my time known as Lake Erie 
Nurseries. From that tree I grew and sold 
thousands, but ouo only outside of my own 
possession has ever been kept intact by the 
grower ; that is now in the grounds of Prof. 
J. P. Kiutland, near Cleveland, Ohio. The 
habit of growth of the Louis Phillipp* Is be¬ 
tween the Dukes and Morellos, upright and 
spreading ; branches more slender than the 
Dukes, but nob as drooping as the Morellos. 
Its growth is vigorous, and it is very pro¬ 
ductive. The fruit is as large as May Duke, 
roundish and very uniformly regular. It is 
generally in clusters of two to four, connect¬ 
ed upon the stem as shown in the drawing 
herewith, which 1 made, and was first pub¬ 
lished in the American Rural Annual for 
187(1. The stalk is rather short and stout, 
and set in a broad, even, regular cavity ; the 
color is, when fully ripe, a rich, dark, ulmost 
purplish black, red. The flesh is tinged with 
red, tender, or resembling the Dukes ; juicy, 
and with a sprightly, mild acid. It matures 
from the middle to the last of July, when 
grown in Cuyahoga Co. O. As a fruit for 
the table or canning, there is not its equal to 
my knowledge, 
“Cherries, many of my friends know, were 
for years partially a hobby of mine, and in 
daily observation, and in the making of notes 
and writing thereof the seedlings of Prof. J. 
P. KirtlaND were made known. I then felt 
that the cherry region of the North and 
West wanted trees of character like the 
Mazzard in growth, but with fruit more of 
the Duke character and late in the ripening. 
In the planting of hundreds of trees, I here 
and there planted a seedling, knowing that 
a poor Mazzard, once it came to fruit, could 
be easily changed, while there was a chance 
of improvement, when the Eeedllngs were 
taken from beneath the choice sorts that 
were mingled. From the gathering and 
planting of seedlings that sprang up among 
trees of many sorts the tree producing the 
cherry, I name “Katie,” came. I planted it 
as I did othei-s ; it grew, and was so strongly 
in growth a Mazzard that I was much dis¬ 
posed to graft it ; but I waited to see the 
fruit, and glad am I that I did so. I watched 
and examined its fruit two years, ere I noted 
it iu the American Horticultural Annual of 
1870, where the illustration is below its size. 
I then cut and 6ent grafts of it to three par¬ 
ties, who ought to have been careful of my 
gift; but I think they have not been, for I 
can get from them no record. The tree, 
however, still exists, but is no longer mine. 
As I have said, the Katie Cherry is in growth 
almost a Mazzard, but its fruit is a resem¬ 
blance of the Blaok Tartarian in form, a 
well-ripened, deep-colored May Duke in 
color, with the sweet acid and tender flesh 
of the Dukes. Its period of ripening is about 
with Red Jacket or Downer’s Late.” 
-- 
ORIGIN OF SWEET AND SOUR APPLES. 
Op all the theories advanced in regard to 
the origin of the old and well-known variety 
of apple named above, none have been quite 
satisfactory to the intelligent pomologist; 
perhaps we should modify this statement a 
little, by saying, theories which are based 
upon the supposition that its origin was the 
result of the union of buds or of the plant 
cells of any two varieties. 
While we may never be able to disabuse 
the novice in these matters of the ideu that 
the union of two halves of a bud, or cion, 
could not produce the results claimed, still 
the discussion of the subject may lead him 
to study vegetable physiology and thereby 
reach a broader and clearer field of vision in 
| the end. 
Mr. R. Brusie of Brooklin, N. Y., thinks 
he has at last solved this very difficult pro¬ 
blem, of the union of plant cells in producing 
a compound sweet and sour apple. It is 
well known that in using seedling apple 
LOUIS phillippe cherry. 
stocks we may graft a sour variety upon a 
sweet, and vice versa, without ever discover- 
aiKIEEm-E’-, “KATIE. 
ing any difference in the fruit borne by the 
cion. Now our correspondent claims, if we 
understand his communication aright, that 
if a bud pliould be formed at the exact point 
of junction between stock and cion, and this 
became u sprout, and afterwards a bearing 
branch the apples will be a compound of two 
varieties, i. e., that which the stock would 
have produced if permitted to grow up into 
a tree, as well as that of the cion. If the 
stock w r as a sweet variety and the cion sour, 
then this adventitious bud, being a com¬ 
pound of both, must necessarily produce 
fruit partaking of the characteristics of both 
plants. 
This is certainly a very “cunning” theory, 
but like all others of a similar class which 
are founded upon the supposition of the per¬ 
fect coalescence of plant cells, either artifi¬ 
cially or naturally, through force of circum¬ 
stances, it lacks logical agreement with what 
we know of the laws governing vegetable 
physiology. It reminds us very much of the 
old assertion, that, if peaches were grafted 
upon willows the fruit thus produced would 
have no seed ; all of which is no doubt true, 
but the troublesome pari of the operation 
was to make peach cions or buds grow on the 
willow stock. But suppose a bud should be 
formed at the ek«<:L point of junction be 
tween the stock and cion, and was composed 
of cells from each, the result could at most 
be but a tree with one portion of the branch¬ 
es bearing one sort of fruit and the remain¬ 
der another. 
If our correspondent and all others who 
believe that any such complete coucretion of 
vegetable matter can take place, will bear iu 
mind that plant cells are extremely minute, 
and yet each may, under favorable condi¬ 
tions, produce the germ of a bud, which 
eventually becomes an individual branch or 
tree ; they will readily understand how very 
uncertain the results of any such attempts 
at uuion must be. 
POMOLOGICAL NOTES. 
The Foster Peach— In the Rural New- 
Yorker of Deo. 5, a Texas correspondent 
asks about the value of this peach. We 
responded that we know nothing about it. 
We since found that Mr. F. R. Elliott de¬ 
scribed and figured it in the American Hor¬ 
ticultural Manual for 1870. From that de¬ 
scription we learn that it originated near 
Boston, had then been repeatedly shown at 
the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s 
Exhibitions, had received premiums but had 
been little disseminated. Mr. Elliott says 
it somewhat resembles Crawford’s Late, but 
is more round and flattened at tlip stem end, 
which becomes more shallow as it approaches 
the apex. Skin a rich yellow color, with a 
warm, red cheek in the sun. Flesh yellow', 
rich, separates freely from the stone, 
slightly acid, but better than Crawford’s 
Late and ripen» about the same time. 
American Cranberries in England— Mr. 
P. T. Quinn thus sums up the result of his 
investigations in the London and Liverpool 
markets, in relation to the status of the 
American Cranberry there i 
1st. That American cranberries are not 
known among the masses of the English peo¬ 
ple; 
2d. That it will need time, perseverance 
and some outlay to introduce them ; 
3d. That with proper and well-directed ef¬ 
forts, a large demand for American cran¬ 
berries can undoubtedly be created in the 
English market. 
Have failed to find space for full report. 
NEW YORK, AND ROCHESTER, N. Y„ .IAN, 16, 1875. 
VOL. XXXI. No. 3. I 
WHOLE No. 1303. 1 
l PRICE siac. CENTS. 
1 82.05 PER YEAR. 
