small wild cherry-tree, but has a bitterish flavour. 
—The dwarf species, Cerasus pumila, introduced 
from North America about the middle of last 
century, is closely similar in appearance and 
habit to the ground-cherry, but seldom attains 
more than one-fourth of its height—The pros- 
trate cherry-tree, Cerasus prostrata, introduced in 
1802 from Crete, is a slightly tender, quite pro- 
cumbent, pink-flowered, ornamental plant, of sel- 
dom more than about a foot in height.—The 
Japan cherry-tree, Cerasus yaponica, introduced 
in 1810 from Japan, is a very handsome, low- 
growing, pink-flowered shrub, of usually between 
two and four feet in height; and it comprises a 
normal variety, a double variety, and a Chinese 
variety,—the second called C. y. multiplex, and 
the third introduced about 12 years ago, and fre- 
quently confounded with the normal plant.—The 
pigmy cherry-tree, Cerasus pygmea, introduced 
about 24 years ago from North America, is an 
ornamental shrub of seldom more than 4 feet in 
height.—Several other species, particularly the 
peach-leaved, the depressed, the winter black 
| choke, and the Chicasaw plum, are small, orna- 
| mental shrubs,—all, like the common cherry- 
tree, carrying white flowers about the end of 
spring. 
The bird’s corone cherry-tree, Cerasus avium, 
is a large, deciduous, native timber and fruit tree 
_ of England and of northern continental Europe. 
Its stem is massive, and commonly soars to the 
height of about 50 feet; its branches are so nu- 
merous, spreading, and relatively adjusted, as to 
constitute a very noble dendritic head ; its leaves 
have an ovately lanceolate outline, and are downy 
underneath ; its flowers are produced, in sessile 
umbels, from the sides of the branches, and ap- 
pear rather later than those of the cultivated 
cherry-trees ; and its fruit is small and red, and 
ripens late in autumn. ‘Trees of this species are 
very elegant in the forest; yet they are seldom 
or never planted by the proprietor, partly because 
they readily propagate themselves, and partly 
because their fruit offers a powerful temptation 
to children to break the branches of the trees, 
and damage the surrounding grounds. The wild 
cherry grows well on either prime soil or ex- 
ceedingly bad soil; but it attains its largest size, 
and bears its greatest loads of fruit, on a loamy soil 
incumbent upon a fine sandy gravel. Its timber 
has a fine grain, and a colour somewhat resem- 
bling that of mahogany; and it is held in much 
esteem by our cabinet-makers, and is extensively 
used for doors, window-shutters, and various ar- 
ticles of furniture—Three varieties of this spe- 
cies are cultivated for their fruit, or as grafting 
stocks of fine cultivated varieties, or as types 
whence some of these varieties have sprung,—the 
common wild, C. a. sylvestris, a native of the 
woods of Britain, usually about 50 feet high,— 
the long purple-fruited, C. a.:-macrocarpa, a na- 
‘tive of Switzerland, usually about 50 feet high — 
and the pale or white and red fruited, C. a. pal- 
CHERRY-TREE. 
787 
lida, also a native of Switzerland, usually about 
20 feet high. A double-flowered and merely or-- 
namental variety, C. a. multiplex, is likewise well 
known in shrubberies and parks, but seldom at- 
tains a height of more than 15 or 16 feet. 
The common cherry-tree, or aggregate type of 
the numerous varieties which, additional to those 
of the bird’s corone cherry-tree, are cultivated for 
their fruit, may be regarded as constituting either 
one species or four species,—one, under the name 
of Cerasus vulgaris, or four, under the names of 
C. semperflorens, C. Juliana, C. duracina, and C. 
caproniana. One of its varieties, bearing a black- 
coloured fruit, grows wild in England, and com- 
petes with C. aviwm in the utility of its timber, 
and has sometimes been regarded as the type of 
the whole group. But all the four divisions, or 
four species, may be summarily regarded as na- 
tives of almost all the milder parts of Europe, 
and as, for the most part, attaining a height of 
about 20 feet; and though they possess very 
discernible properties of mutual distinction, not 
only from one another, but in each of their nu- 
merous varieties, they aggregately constitute an 
object too well known to require any description, 
and too full of beauty in at once foliage, flower, 
j and fruit, to escape the observation of any of 
our population except babes and idiots. ‘“ Were 
cherry-trees scarce, and with much difficulty 
propagated,” remarks Hanbury, “ every man, 
though possessed of a single tree only, would | 
look upon it as a treasure. For, besides the 
charming appearance these trees have, when be- 
snowed, as it were, all over with bloom in the 
spring, can any tree in the vegetable tribe be | 
conceived more beautiful, striking, and grand 
than a well-grown and healthy cherry-tree, at 
that period when the fruit is ripe?” Thedouble- | 
flowered variety of the wild species, C. aviwm | 
multiplex, and the thoroughly double-flowered | 
variety of the hautbois species, C. caproniana | 
multiplex, are especially and even most brilliantly 
beautiful. The flowers are produced in large and 
noble clusters; and all are very large, and as 
double as garden roses; and they stand on long 
and slender footstalks, so as to give the branches | 
an appearance of being sheeted over with beauty, 
and yet possessing an air of ease and freedom. 
“They are of a pure white,” remarks Marshall, 
“and the trees are so profusely covered with 
them, as to charm the imagination. Standards 
of these trees, when viewed at a distance, have 
been compared to balls of snow; and the nearer 
we approach, the greater pleasure we receive. 
These trees may be kept as dwarfs, or trained up 
to standards; so that there is no garden or plan- 
tation to which they will not be suitable.” 
While all the types of our cultivated fruit 
cherry-trees grow wild throughout the greater 
part of Europe, the first large-fruited variety 
which came into general cultivation is said to 
have grown in the vicinity of Cerasus, a town of 
Pontus in Asia, and to have been introduced 
