Sweet Cherry Tree
The Sweet Cherry of Europe (Prunus Avium, Linn.), has given us our cultivated sweet cherries. Wild seedlings in fence corners are called Mazzards. They have brown bark, and grow tall and pyramidal around a central stem, often attaining great age and size-very different in habit of growth from small, short-lived sour cherry trees. The leaves are broad, doubly toothed, sharp pointed, and limp in texture. The flowers are much like those of the preceding species, but they open later, when the leaves are out. The cherries are more or less heart shaped and generally sweet.
Beside the Mazzards, which are inferior in fruit, there are the Heart cherries in cultivation, two groups of them: (1) Those with firm flesh, and (2) those with soft, juicy flesh; and the Dukes, which have light-coloured, acid flesh. The Hearts are variously coloured-some red, some black, others yellow.