216 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
Sloes are some of one taste and some of others, more sharp; some 
greater and others lesser; the which to distinguish with long 
descriptions were to small purpose, considering they be all and 
every of them knowne even unto the simplest.” 
Having done with the wild Plums of our hedge-rows, I will say 
a little about the wild Cherries, Prunus Avium and P. Cerasus. I 
shall only deal with the question of their aboriginal nativity or 
introduction, for to me their specific distinctness appears undoubted, 
differing to the extent they do in general habit, leaves, flowers, 
and fruit. However, there are botanists who combine the two, 
and Hooker, in his Students’ Flora, makes them but sub-species. 
We have Avium as a tree of moderate size in many of our woods, 
as well as in our hedge-rows, but I have never seen Cerasus in a 
copse or wood, and usually in such hedge-rows as are in the vicinity 
of houses. I consider Avium (that is, the Black Cherry or Gean) 
a doubtful native; Cerasus (the Morella) not more than a denizen. 
I may here incidentally remark that there is a strange error in 
Hooker’s Students’ Flora, through the statement that the Dwarf 
Cherry is the supposed origin of the Garden Cherry, and the Gean 
of the Morella. The converse is the case. The Morella fruits but 
sparingly in our hedge-rows, owing probably in some measure to 
the bushes being generally cut back after having attained only a 
few years’ growth. Still, considering the quantity of it, the avidity 
with which birds devour its fruits, and the extreme readiness with 
which Cherries spring from seed, it does seem remarkable that I 
am unable to bring forward a single instance of its occurrence out 
of a hedge-row. Under these circumstances I put it, without 
hesitation, in the denizen list. 
I will now give some particulars concerning our wild Pears. 
Turning to the London Catalogue, we see three varieties named 
under the Pyrus communis of Linneeus. They are Pyraster, Achras, 
and Briggsiz. We find much the same confusion here as we do 
concerning the wild Plums, some authors considering the three 
plants as of a higher grade than varieties of a single species. In 
the neighbourhood of Plymouth the wild Pear is quite rare, though 
we have two of the varieties named under it, viz., Pyraster and 
Briggsii; possibly Achras also, but unfortunately the discrimination 
of it and Pyraster depends greatly on the relative size and shape 
of the fruits, and these are so sparingly produced by our hedge-row 
examples that I have seen it in but very few instances. 
