P . Cerasus, and that the synonyms of this and the P. avium of
the same authors have been misunderstood and misapplied
by British botanists to slight varieties in many instances
of our common wild cherry (the indubitable P. avium of
Linnaeus), will, I think, be obvious to any one who compares
our present plant with the accounts given of both by
the writers above quoted; the excellent descriptions by
some of whom leave no reasonable excuse for longer confounding,
under one and the same denomination, species so
palpably distinct. Were it needful to recur to the Lin-
naean herbarium for further confirmation on this head, the
species of Pruhus therein contained, from their bad state of
preservation, would avail us but little.
P . Cerasus was first observed by me two years ago, growing
plentifully in a wood near Whippingham, in this island
(Isle of Wight) ; since which time I have met with it in various
other places, very remote from habitations, and I am
now disposed to consider it as truly indigenous here, though
at first inclined to a different opinion. The continental
writers are divided in their sentiments on the question of
its indigenous origin ; some, as Gaudin and Lejeune, expressing
no doubts of its being an aboriginal, whilst others
regard it as naturalized in Europe and escaped from cultivation,
a state in which it possibly often does occur, as it is
certainly the parent of our Morello cherries, and abundantly
grown in gardens for the fruit. Its natural stations
are the borders of woods and copses, and especially the
edges of steep overhanging banks, which it often fringes
for many yards uninterruptedly. It also occurs here and
there in hedge-rows, apparently requiring open sunny exposures,
and has been observed in various parts of England,
in Wales, and Scotland ? (Ross-shire ? Loudon's drb. Brit.),
by Mr. Borrer, Mr. Leighton and others. Mr. Mackay in
his Flora Hibernica mentions it, on the authority of Mr.
Templeton, as a native of Ireland, about Lough Neagh
and elsewhere, but without hinting a suspicion that it might
be more than a small red-fruited variety of the common
wild cherry (P. avium, L.), whose produce is either, as in
this island, red and bitter, or else black, sweet, and well-
tasted.
A bushy shrub 6 or 8 feet high, sending up suckers
from the roots, and rising usually with several slender
(more rarely 1 or 2 pretty stout) branching stems covered
with a reddish brown bark, like that of Prunus spinosa,
or insititia, to which, in habit and mode of growth, it
makes a certain approach. Leaves appearing with the
flowers (in the Isle of Wight at the close of April, or very
early in May), at first scarcely 2 inches long, bright green
(not tinged with red, as in P . avium), varnished as it
were with gum; when quite young folded together, with
a slight hairiness underneath, but which, long before they
are full-grown, entirely disappears, leaving them perfectly
glabrous on both sides. In this earlier state they are
broadly ovate and shortly acuminate, finally enlarging to 3
or 4 inches, and inclining to ovato-lanceolate with longer
points; but in all stages of their development the leaves are
erect or horizontal, never pendent, as is so strikingly the
case with P . avium, besides possessing a firmness and opacity
quite wanting to those of the latter. There is usually
a small, reddish, flattened gland or two near the base of
each leaf, of which the petioles themselves are mostly destitute.
Stipules in pairs at the foot of each leaf-stalk, erect,
linear, with distant, tooth-like, coloured serratures. Umbels
lateral, subsessile, mostly scattered, solitary, or two together
(at least in the really wild plant, for in the cultivated
Morello cherry, of which Mr. Borrer and others justly consider
this species the parent, the umbels are often crowded,
or aggregate as in P . avium), few- (2—4) flowered, with
an occasional single flower-bud interspersed. Peduncles
simple, erect, spreading, or deflexed, but not drooping from
their laxity as in P . avium, springing from buds whose
inner scales are leafy, which is considered by Koch as a character
of the species. Blossoms large, white, agreeably
scented, making a handsome appearance in contrast with
the bright green of the young leaves. Sepals ovate, very
blunt, and rounded, strongly deflexed, with a few crenate
serratures, scarcely |rd the length of the broad, round, firm,
and widely-spreading petals. Drupe small, round, red,
juicy, acid, ripening very late, and sparingly produced in
the wild state, at least in this island.