CE'RASUS, a genus of plants belonging to the Amygdaleous divi sion of the natural order Rosacem, and including the Common Cherry among its species. It is hardly different from Prunus, there being little or nothing to distinguish it beyond its leaves when young being folded flat instead of being rolled up. Botanists seem however pretty well agreed in looking upon the Cherries as a genus distinct from Plums, and we follow their example. The species may be divided into the True Cherries, the Bird-Cherries, and the Cherry-Laurels.
Section I. True Cherries. Flowers growing in Umbels or singly, or occasionally in short Corymbs; usually appearing earlier than the Leaves.
1. C. Arium (Prunus Avium, Linn.), the Wild Cherry. Flowers appearing with the leaves, which are pale and rather downy under neath. Branches when young weak and spreading. Fruit roundish, with a soft flesh and an austere juice. A native of the woods of Europe and the west of Asia ; and iu a cultivated form common in gardens. In this country it occurs as far to the north as Ross-shire, where it exists in the form of a dwarf bush propagating itself rapidly by the roots. The wood is remarkable for the large size of its medul lary processes, which give its longitudinal seetiou a bright satiny lustre, and render it well suited for ornamental cabinet work. Iu this respect it is much superior to the C. vulgaris. When growing in gravelly or sharp sandy situations with a dry bottom, which are the only localities where it thrives, it acquires a very considerable size, occasional specimens being spoken of as much as 80 feet and more in height; it is however more commonly seen in the state of coppice wood. To this species we presume all the weeping or weak-branched cultivated cherries with an acid juice are to be referred either as genuine varieties or hybrid forms ; such are the Merise or Merisier, Morello, Kentish and All Saint, or Overflowering Cherry, which last is often made into a species by systematic writers, and called C. semper _Orem. Some of the varieties, especially the Double-Flowered French, as it is commonly called, the Double Merisier of the French, are remarkable for their elegance and beauty. C. Avium is the Cerasus sylvestris of Ray ; and the C. marasca, or Marasehe Cherry, of
Dalmatis, from which maraschino is prepared, has no specific marks to distinguish it.
2. C. vulgaris (Prunus Ceratrus, Linn.), the Common Cherry. Flowers appearing earlier than the leaves, which are light green and smooth underneath. Branches when young stiff and erect. Fruit roundish or heartshaped, succulent, more or less firm, and sugary. Found wild in the woods of Asia Minor, where it acquires a very large size. Walsh speaks of it as being still common along the northern coast of Asia Minor, whence the original cherry' was brought to Europe. One variety is chiefly seen in gardens, the other grows in woods in the interior, particularly on the banks of the Sakari, the ancient Sangarius. I The trees attain a gigantic size; they are ascended by perpendicular i ladders suspended from the lowest branches. Walsh measured one 1 of them 5 feet in circumference (1), 40 feet to the origin of the lowest branches, and from 90 to 100 feet in full height ; this large tree was loaded with delicious, fine, transparent, amber-coloured fruit. Dr. Boyle considers the cherry wild in Cashmere. It was introduced into Europe by the Romans under Lucullus, about half a century before the birth of Christ, and has ever since formed one of the most esteemed varietes of dessert fruit. It differs from the genuine form of C. Avium in the characters above assigned to it, as also in its wood having such small medullary processes that nothing like a satiny appearance in it is produced, whatever the direction be in which it is cut ; hence its grain is plain, and it is but ill suited for cabinet makers work. It is to be presumed that this exotic species is the origin of the sweet large cherries called Bigarreaus, Guignes, and the like, to which must undoubtedly be added the Tartariau Cherries of the English gardens. That the two species now enumerated were really distinct in the beginning we have little doubt ; but long culti vation and their intermixture by hybridising, either intentional or accidental, have so confused them that the gardens are filled with intermediate races, and their limits are lost sight of.