FLORENCE

Prunus avium

Florence is a Bigarreau so similar to Yellow Spanish as to be hardly worth planting, since it is, all and all, surpassed by its better-known rival. The fruit hangs on the tree in edible condition an almost phenomenal length of time which has given rise to much divergence of opinion as to its season, some pomologists rating it as early, others as mid-season and still others as late. At Geneva the trees of this variety are not as healthful, vigorous or as fruitful as those of Yellow Spanish, with which it must compete, nor are the cherries quite as fine in appearance or quality.

This variety was found in Florence, Italy, early in the Nineteenth Century by John Houblon, who took it to England from whence it was brought to America. It found a place in 1885 on the fruit list of the American Pomological Society where it remained until 1891, when it was discarded, with quite sufficient reason.

FLORENCE

Tree vigorous, upright, open-topped, productive; trunk and branches thick, smooth; branches reddish-brown partly overspread with ash-gray, with numerous lenticels; branchlets thick, long, brown partly covered with ash-gray, smooth, with inconspicuous, raised lenticels.

Leaves numerous, variable in size, averaging four and one-fourth inches long, two and one-fourth inches wide, folded upward, long-oval to obovate, thin; upper surface rather dark green, rugose; lower surface dull light green, thinly pubescent; apex acute, base abrupt; margin coarsely and doubly serrate, glandular; petiole one and three-fourths inches long, thick, pubescent, dull red, with from two to four large, reniform, reddish glands on the stalk.

Buds pointed, plump, free, arranged as lateral buds and grouped in large clusters on numerous short spurs; season of bloom intermediate; flowers one and one-fourth inches across, white; borne in dense clusters in twos and threes; pedicels three-fourths of an inch long, slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes greenish, acute, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals broad-obovate to oval, entire, with very short, blunt claws, distinctly notched at the apex; filaments nearly one-half inch long; pistil glabrous, usually shorter than the stamens.

Fruit matures early; one inch in diameter, cordate, compressed; cavity deep, wide; suture very shallow; apex somewhat pointed; color reddish over an amber background, marked with indistinct, whitish spots and streaks; dots numerous, small, whitish, inconspicuous; stem one and one-half inches long, adherent to the fruit; skin thin, separating from the pulp; flesh yellowish-white, with colorless juice, tender, meaty, crisp, sprightly, sweet; of very good quality; stone clinging, cordate, flattened, blunt, with roughish surfaces; enlarged along the ventral suture.