OF FOREST-TREES. 181

C H A P. XI.

The BLACK CHERRY

I Rank this amongst the forest berry-bearing trees (frequent in the CHAPhedges, and growing wild in Herefordshire , and many places ; for I speaknot here of our orchard Cherries, said to have been brought into Kentout of Flanders by Henry VIII .) chiefly from the suffrage of thatindustrious planter, Mr. Cooke, from whose ingenuity and experience(as well as out of gratitude for his frequent mentioning of me in hiselaborate and useful work) I acknowledge to have benefited myself jthough I have also given no obscure taste of this pretty tree in book ii.chap vii.

It Is raised of the stones of Black Cherries very ripe, '(as they arein July,) endeavouring to procure such as are full and large ; whereofsome he tells us, are a little inferior to the Black Orleance, withoutgraffing, and from the very genius of the ground. These gathered, thefleshy part is to be taken off by rolling them under a plank in dry sand;and when the humidity is off (as it will be in three or four days) reservethem in sand again, a little moist and housed, till the beginningof February, when you may sow them in a light gravelly mould, keepingthem clean for two years, and thence planting them Into your nurseriesto raise other kinds upon, or for woods, copses, and hedge-rows, and forwalks and avenues. In a dryish soil, mixt with loam, though the

^The wild cherry-tree is titled PRUNUS (cerasvs) umbellis subsefsilibus, folksovato-lanceolatis conduplicatis glabris. Sp. PL 679. J. Bauhine calls it Cerasus Sylvestris,fructu nigro et rubro. It belongs to the clafs and order Icosandria Monogynia , havingtwenty or more stamina, and only one style.

This tree is very proper to plant in parks, because it grows to a large size, and makesa beautiful appearance. In the spring, when in full flower, it is highly ornamental.—It thrives in poor land much better than most other sorts. The French often plant it foravenues to their houses. They also cultivate it in their woods for hoops, for whichpurpose they esteem it much. The Hones of the Wild Cherry are generally sown forraising stocks to graft, or bud -the other sorts of Cherries upon, being of a quick growth,aud considerable duration. In Scotland this tree is called the geen tree. The fruitis very pleasant. Many fine trees of this sort grow at Whixley, near Wetherby.

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