EMPRESS EUGENIE

Prunus avium × Prunus cerasus

This old French cherry, for many years largely advertised and widely sold in America, does not thrive in the New World as well as the reports say it does in the Old World. The two faults that condemn it, as it grows here, are that the cherries ripen very unevenly making several pickings necessary and the trees are so small that, though loaded with fruit, the total yield is not large. Lesser faults are that the cherries are not uniform in shape and are borne thickly in close clusters so that when brown-rot is rife this variety suffers greatly. The short stem, too, prevents easy picking. To offset these faults Empress Eugenie has to its credit the reputation of being about the most refreshing and delicious Duke. In a home plantation where the unevenness in ripening can be utilized to prolong the season and where dwarfness may not be undesirable, Empress Eugenie may well find a place.

This cherry appeared in 1845 as a chance seedling on the grounds of M. Varenne at Belleville, near Paris, France. It first fruited about 1850 and four years later the Horticultural Society of Paris placed it, under the name Impératrice Eugenie, on its list of recommended fruits. M. A. Gontier, a nurseryman at Fontenay-aux-Roses introduced it to commerce in 1855. Empress Eugenie soon became quite generally disseminated throughout Europe and was considered nearly as good as May Duke, with which it has occasionally been confused. It must have been brought to America towards the beginning of the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century and here it gradually became widely distributed until today it is found in all the leading cherry plantations and is propagated by a large number of nurserymen throughout the United States. The American Pomological Society added this cherry to its fruit catalog list in 1877 under the name Empress Eugenie. In 1883 this name was shortened to Eugenie under which term it has since appeared in the Society's catalog. In The Cherries of New York we have not adopted the shortened name as, by such a change, all trace is lost of the person after whom the cherry was christened.

EMPRESS EUGENIE

Tree small, not very vigorous, upright, becoming round-topped, very productive; trunk slender, roughish; branches slender, much roughened, reddish-brown partly covered with ash-gray, with numerous small lenticels; branchlets with short internodes, brown slightly covered with ash-gray, smooth except for the numerous small, conspicuous, much-raised lenticels.

Leaves numerous, three and one-half inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, folded upward, obovate, thick; upper surface dark green, slightly rugose; lower surface light green, thinly pubescent; apex abruptly pointed, base variable in shape; margin doubly serrate, with small, dark glands; petiole three-fourths of an inch long, tinged with red, with a few hairs along the upper surface, glandless or with one or two small, globose, greenish-yellow or reddish glands, usually at the base of the blade.

Buds obtuse, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds and on long or short spurs, in clusters variable in size; leaf-scars obscure; blooming in mid-season; flowers one and one-fourth inches across, white; borne in very dense clusters, in threes and fours; pedicels one inch long, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube with a faint tinge of red, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes with a trace of red, acute, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals roundish, entire, with short but distinct claws; apex nearly entire; filaments one-fourth inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.

Fruit matures in mid-season; three-fourths of an inch in diameter, roundish-conic to oblate-conic, compressed; cavity narrow; suture very shallow, indistinct; apex flattened or depressed; color dark red; dots numerous, small, dark russet, obscure; stem one and one-fourth inches long, adherent to the fruit; skin tough, separating from the pulp; flesh pale red, with pinkish juice, tender, meaty, sprightly, pleasant flavored, tart; of good quality; stone semi-clinging, small, ovate, flattened, somewhat oblique, with smooth surfaces.