Do you know the peculiar taste and odour of the pit of a cherry or peach?
Then you will recognise it without difficulty when you meet it in a
bruised leaf or twig of any tree that bears stone fruits, wild or
cultivated. It belongs to the family which includes plums, cherries,
peaches, apricots, and almonds. But one species of native cherry is a
large tree. It is chiefly as fruit trees that the cultivated varieties
are important. A few are grown for their beauty as flowering trees and
shrubs; some for their rich bronze foliage.
The wild cherry is the one lumber tree in the family. Its wood ranks with
mahogany, though not so expensive as the tree which grows no nearer to us
than lower Florida and Central America. It is made into furniture or used
in the interior finishing of houses, parlour cars, and ocean liners. It
takes a beautiful polish, and has a rich brown colour that improves with
time. It is largely used as veneer on cheaper woods. “Solid cherry” is
likely to be birch, if the article is of modern make.
This cherry has dark, shiny bark when young, which breaks into shallow
furrows, and curls back like birch bark. The unquestionable sign by which
to know a wild cherry is the bitter, peach-pit taste of the sap. Nibble a
leaf or twig or bit of bark, and you get that unforgettable taste, that
stays on the tongue longer than we like.
Birds feast in September on the long clusters of dark purple berries.
They are bitter sweet, barely edible, I say. But birds take them
thankfully, and children usually eat them freely. Old-fashioned people
make them into wines or cordials for home remedies.
The choke cherry is a shrubby tree, with a rank, disagreeable odour added
to the bitter and pungent odour that belongs to the black cherry. The
leaves are twice as wide as the black cherry’s. The fruit shares the rank
quality of the leaves and bark. Until dead ripe, the cherries are so
bitter, harsh, and puckery that children, who eat the black cherries
eagerly, cannot be persuaded to taste choke cherries a second time. This
is well-named the “choke” cherry. Only the birds can eat the berries
without choking. They seem not to mind its rankness, for the fruit is all
taken by the time it has turned black-ripe.
Early in summer the red bird cherry is in fruit, after its crown of white
blossoms has passed. The pit is large, and the flesh thin and sour, and
the whole fruit is discouragingly small. But birds are happy among the
shining leaves until the last cherry is gone. This is quite sufficient
appreciation. The seeds are dropped, and the little trees come up all
through the woods and in the most unexpected places, due to the birds’
scattering of the seeds.
Garden cherries of the sweet and sour groups have sprung from wild
species that grow in Europe. The red, black, and yellow cherries of
California are the largest, most improved varieties. The garden cherries
of the Eastern states are not nearly so large.
The native cherry of Japan has been cultivated as a flowering tree, until
it is wonderfully beautiful. In its season of bloom, Japan is a perfect
fairyland. The country is one great garden of pink cherry blossoms. At
this time the people turn out to see the marvellous sight. A national
holiday is dedicated to this tree, which is the symbol of happiness in
the Flower Kingdom.