KNIGHT

Prunus avium

This old English variety has long been popular in America, where it is generally known as Knight's Early Black, this name having been shortened by the American Pomological Society to Knight. Possibly Knight is to be found in dooryards and home gardens in Eastern United States as often as any other Sweet Cherry with the exception of Black Tartarian. The characters which give it popularity are excellent quality, handsome appearance because of its glossy, dark purple color and uniformity in color, shape and size, and its earliness, it being the earliest good Sweet Cherry. Unfortunately, even in the best soil and under the most painstaking treatment, the cherries run small, a defect for American markets. The small size also leads to comparatively low yields even though the fruits are often borne in prodigious numbers. Knight, in size, color and flavor, is much like Black Tartarian but the cherries are smaller and ripen earlier. As the trees grow on the grounds of this Station they are about all that could be desired in a Sweet Cherry. The trees are characteristically marked by smooth bark which is dotted with large lenticels. There are now better sweet varieties than Knight for most purposes but still this old variety has too many merits, especially for home grounds, to be wholly forgotten.

Knight comes from a seed of May Duke crossed with Yellow Spanish by T. A. Knight, Downton Castle, Wiltshire, England, about 1810. The new variety sprang into prominence almost immediately, being mentioned by French, German and English writers. Knight is still one of the well-recognized sorts in Europe and America and has appeared continuously on the fruit list of the American Pomological Society since 1848. Mathieu has included several synonyms under this head which we question as we believe they belong to the Guigne Noir Hâtive, a distinct variety though very similar.

KNIGHT

Tree of medium size, upright-spreading, open-topped, very productive; trunk stocky, variable in smoothness; branches smooth, light reddish-brown nearly overspread with ash-gray, with small lenticels; branchlets thick, brown lightly covered with ash-gray, variable in smoothness, with small, raised, inconspicuous lenticels.

Leaves numerous, five and one-half inches long, two and one-half inches wide, folded upward, obovate to long-oval, thin; upper surface dark green, rugose; lower surface light green, thinly pubescent; apex and base variable in shape; margin doubly serrate, with small, dark glands; petiole two inches long, slender, tinged with red, with a shallow groove and with few hairs, with two or three large, reniform, reddish glands, usually on the stalk.

Buds long, conical or pointed, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds and in small clusters on spurs variable in length; leaf-scars prominent; season of bloom intermediate; flowers white, one and one-fourth inches across; borne in dense clusters, usually in twos; pedicels one inch long, slender, glabrous; calyx-tube green, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes lightly tinged with red, long, acute, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals oval, entire, deeply notched at the apex; filaments nearly one-half inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.

Fruit matures early; three-fourths of an inch in diameter, cordate to conical; cavity wide, rather abrupt; suture indistinct; apex flattened, with a small depression at the center; color dark reddish-black, obscurely mottled; dots numerous, small, russet, obscure; stem slender, one and one-half inches long, adhering well to the fruit; skin thin, tender, separating from the pulp; flesh dark red, with dark colored juice, tender, meaty, mild, sweet; of good quality; stone free except along the ventral suture, small, roundish-ovate, with smooth surfaces.