BOURGUEIL

Prunus cerasus

Bourgueil is a variant form of Montmorency hardly differing enough in fruit from Large Montmorency to be distinguished from it and yet since it seems to be more productive than the last-named sort it is possibly worth adding to the cherry flora of the country. The variety, it must be remembered, is still on probation, but if trees true to name can be obtained it is worth planting in small numbers where growers want a cherry of the Montmorency type.

This variety was found by a Doctor Bretonneau about 1844 in Bourgueil, Indre-et-Loire, France. It is known by the name of the finder as well as that of the locality in which it originated and through having the same place of origin is often confused with Cerise Rouge Pale. The United States Department of Agriculture received this variety in 1905 from Ferdinand Jamin, Bourg-la-Reine, Seine, France, and in turn forwarded it to this Station where it has been fruiting for the past few seasons. Nurserymen do not as yet offer it for sale and it is doubtful if it is known in more than a few places in America.

BOURGUEIL

Tree vigorous, upright-spreading, vasiform, productive; branches slender, smooth, reddish-brown partly covered with ash-gray, with numerous lenticels; branchlets slender, long, brown, with some ash-gray, smooth, with numerous inconspicuous, raised lenticels.

Leaves numerous, four inches long, two inches wide, folded upward, obovate to ovate, thick; upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface light green, pubescent along the veins; apex and base variable in shape; margin doubly crenate; petiole one inch long, thick, with a dull tinge of red, pubescent, with none or with from one to three globose, yellow or brownish glands on the base of the blade.

Buds small, short, variable in shape, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds and on short spurs in clusters variable in size; leaf-scars prominent; season of bloom late; flowers white, one and one-fourth inches across; borne in scattering, well-distributed clusters, usually in threes; pedicels short, one-half inch long, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube faintly tinged with red, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes with a trace of red, broad, serrate, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals crinkled, roundish, entire, sessile, with apex entire; filaments one-fourth inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.

Fruit matures in mid-season; three-fourths inch long, one inch wide, nearly oblate, somewhat compressed; cavity deep, wide, medium flaring, regular; suture indistinct; apex roundish to flattened; color bright red; dots small, russet, inconspicuous; stem stout, one and one-eighth inches long, adherent to the fruit; skin tender, free; flesh yellowish-white with colorless juice, tender and melting, sprightly, sour; of good quality; stone free, large, roundish-ovate, pointed, with smooth surfaces, tinged with red, with a prominent ventral suture.