in botany: A genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the iocandra class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 36th order, Pomaceae. The calyx is quinqued, inferior; there are five petals; the fruit is a plum, having a kernel with prominent futures. There are 15 species, of which five are cultivated in Britain: they are originally natives of America and Siberia.
1. The domestica, or common plum-tree, grows 20 or 30 feet high, garnished with oval, spear-shaped leaves, and with the pedunculi for the most part fingle, terminated by flowers, succeeded by plums of many different colours, sizes, and shapes in the varieties. 2. The insititia, wild-plum, or bullace-tree, grows 12 or 15 feet high; the branches somewhat spinous; the leaves oval, hairy underneath; and the pedunculi by pairs, terminated by white flowers succeeded by small, round, plum-like, fruit of different colours in the varieties. 3. The spinosa, black-thorn, or floe-tree, grows 10 or 12 feet high, very branchy and bushy quite from bottom, armed with strong, sharp spines, small, spear-shaped, smooth leaves, pedunculi growing fingly, terminated by flowers, succeeded by small, round, black cherries in autumn. It grows wild everywhere in hedges and woods; and is very proper for planting field hedges, being of very quick and close growth. 4. The ceratia, or common cherry-tree, grows 20 feet or more in height, garnished with oval clusters of lanceolate, smooth leaves, umbellate flowers, succeeded by clusters of red roundish fruit of different sizes and properties in the varieties. Hanbury says, "were this tree scarce, and with much difficulty propagated, 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 bloomed, 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."
The many kinds of cherry-trees afford an almost endless variety; all differing in some respect in their manner of shooting, leaves, flowers, or fruit: two in particular demand admission into the pleasure-garden; the double-blossomed and the red-flowering. The pleasing show the common cherry-tree makes when in blow is known Pruning known to all; but that of the double-blossomed is much more enchanting. It blossoms like the other in May; the flowers are produced in large and noble clusters; for each separate flower is as double as a rose, is very large, and placed on long and slender footstalks, so as to occasion the branches to have an air of ease and freedom. They are of a pure white; and the trees will be 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 plantation to which they will not be suitable. By the multiplicity of the petals the organs of generation are destroyed; so that those flowers which are really full are never succeeded by any fruit.
The red-flowering cherry-tree differs in no respect from the common cherry-tree, only that the flowers are of a pale-red colour, and by many are esteemed on that account. Besides the ornament and utility afforded us by the flowers and fruit of the cherry, its timber is a further inducement for propagating it; more especially that of the small black wilding sort; which may perhaps with propriety be considered as the genuine species, and a native of this island. Be this as it may, it will grow, in a soil and situation it affects, to be a large timber tree; which, if taken in its prime before it become tainted at the heart, will turn out perhaps not less than a ton of valuable materials, peculiarly adapted to the purposes of furniture. The grain is fine, and the colour nearly approaching to that of mahogany, to which valuable wood it comes nearer than any other which this country produces.
5. The avium, or great wild-cherry tree, grows 40 or 50 feet high, having oval, spear-shaped leaves, downy underneath, with umbellate sessile clusters of white flowers, succeeded by small round fruit of different properties in the varieties.
6. The padus, or common bird-cherry tree, grows 15 or 20 feet high, of a shrub-like growth, with a spreading head, large, oblong, rough, serrated leaves, having two glands at the back of the base like the other, and with shorter, more compact clusters of flowers, succeeded by large red fruit. This grows wild in hedges in the north parts of England.
7. The Virginiana, or Virginian bird-cherry, grows 30 feet high, dividing into a very branchy head, having a dark purple bark, oval, slightly serrated, thinning green leaves, having two glands at the forepart of the base, and long clusters of white flowers, succeeded by small, round, berry-like, black fruit.
8. The Canadensis, or Canada dwarf bird cherry, grows but four or five feet high, branching horizontally near the ground with smooth branches; broad, spear-shaped, rough downy leaves without glands; and long clusters of white flowers, succeeded by small, round, berry-like, black fruit, ripe in autumn.
9. The mahaleb, or perfumed cherry, grows 10 or 15 feet high, with smooth whitish branches, small, oval, thinning green leaves, and corymbose clusters of white flowers, succeeded by small fruit.
10. The armeniaca, or apricot tree, grows 20 feet high, with a large spreading head, having reddish shoots, large nearly heart-shaped leaves, and close-fitting pale-red flowers rising all along the sides of the young branches; succeeded by large, roundish fruit of a yellow and reddish colour in different varieties. The fruit and the kernels of the Prunus Siberica, when eaten, excite a continued headache; the kernels, infused in brandy, communicate an agreeable flavour.
Culture. All the different varieties of plums have at first been raised from the stones, and are afterwards preserved by budding and grafting on any plum-stock. The same method is applicable to cherries; only these are grafted to most advantage upon stocks of the wild black and red cherry raised from the stones of the fruit. The apricot-trees are propagated by budding on any kind of plum-stocks.