1881 . ] 
st. Margaret’s cherry.—the royal national tulip society. 
105 
CONSIDER the St 
O one of the best and most useful varieties 
of Cherry in cultivation. The tree is a 
vigorous grower, and has a strong, hardy con¬ 
stitution. It is also an excellent bearer, and 
the branches are not so liable to die off as they 
are in some other kinds. The fruit is large, 
handsome, and of good flavour. But perhaps 
the chief merit of this variety is its coming in 
when nearly all other Cherries are over. It is 
late in ripening, and hangs well on the tree for 
some time after it is ripe. I have gathered 
fruit from a tree on a west wall at the end of 
August, and have no doubt that if it were 
grown on a north wall along with the Morello, 
its season could be further prolonged.” 
For the above remarks on this beautiful 
Cherry, and for the sample represented in the 
accompanying plate, we are indebted to Mr. 
John Woodbridge, who so ably directs the 
ducal gardens at Syon House, Brentford. Mr. 
Woodbridge grows the St. Margaret’s Cherry 
with very marked success, and finds it exceed¬ 
ingly useful as a late dessert fruit, for which 
it is well fitted, on account of its large size, its 
handsome appearance, and its excellent quality, 
in which particulars it takes rank with the 
Black Tartarian and the Bigarreau Napoleon. 
M. Leroy, in his Dictionnaire de Pomologie, 
adopts for this Cherry the name of Gros Bigar¬ 
reau Noir. It has, besides, many other syn¬ 
onyms, amongst which occur Elk-horn, Large 
Black Bigarreau, and Tradescant’s Heart, the 
ST. MARGARET’S CHERRY. 
[Plate 542.] 
Margaret’s to be latter adopted by Dr. Hogg. Leroy describes it 
being of first-rate quality, and of the largest 
size, inconstant in form, often very obtusely cor¬ 
date, or irregularly globose, with a broad and 
shallow suture. The slender fruit-stalks, which 
are set in a shallow cavity, are rather short, 
seldom exceeding If in. in length ; the colour 
of the skin is of an intense purple-red, becom¬ 
ing nearly black when the fruit is fully ripe ; 
the flesh is violet-red, firm and crackling, with 
an abundance of sweet juice, having a slightly 
acidulous and very agreeable flavour; the 
stone is rather small, ovoid, pointed. 
u Like the Gros-Coeuret,” observes M. Leroy, 
“ the Gros Bigarreau Noir was, from its most 
ordinary form and for its colour, primitively 
called Coeur-Noir (Black-heart) and Heaurne- 
Noir (Black-helmet). Estienne, the first author 
who characterised it (Seminctrium, p. 78), named 
it thus in 1540, observing that it was much 
spread over the orchards of Anjou, of which 
it is probably a native, since it still bears in the 
markets the surname Bigarreau de Saint-Land, 
recalling that suburb of Angers. 
“ This Cherry has often been confounded 
with the Gros-Coeuret, a name which Poiteau 
even applied to it in 184G, in his Pomologie 
Frcmqaise; but this error would not be re¬ 
peated so easily now-a-days, for these two 
varieties are well known b) r all nurserymen. 
Let us remark, however, that several synonyms 
are common to them,—Coeur, Coeuret, Heaume, 
and Ochsen.”—M. 
THE ROYAL NATIONAL TULIP SOCIETY. 
£?==~^E)HE annual exhibition of this Society 
was held on June 4th, at the Manchester 
Botanical and Horticultural Society’s 
Garden, Old Trafford. The Show, which had 
been originally fixed for June 8 th, had been neces¬ 
sarily put forward, in consequence of the hot 
forcing weather at the end of May. The show of 
blooms was a very good one, considering the late¬ 
ness of the season and the sudden impulse given 
by the hot weather, and the display was larger 
than had been seen for years previously. The 
quality seemed to be about the average. The 
frost of last winter did not appear to have 
affected the Tulip bulbs, for the foliage was 
everywhere strong and healthy, and early in 
the season gave promise of a good, though late, 
bloom; but the hot weather which occurred 
during the three weeks preceding the Show 
had forced the bloom on so fast that several 
growers were out of first-class varieties, and 
consequently there were fewer pans of twelve 
staged than usual. A late season and hot 
May sun have a tendency to make the marking 
and delicate feathering all the brighter, when 
caught; but, on the other hand, the bloom is 
sooner over, the flowers scarcely lasting a week, 
so that many good flowers never reach the 
exhibition stage. There were a few seedlings 
shown, but nothing to take precedence of the 
older varieties, although Mr. B. Simonite, 
Sheffield, had some of very fair quality, and so 
had a few others. Samuel Barlow, Esq., who 
