WATERLOO

Prunus avium × (Prunus avium × Prunus cerasus)

This old sort, seemingly well thought of in Europe, has not been popular in America and has only historical value to cherry-growers of this country. It is an interesting cherry resembling the Bigarreaus in tree and leaf-characters while the flowers are more like those of the Dukes, the fruit, too, taking on more the aspect of the Dukes than of the Sweet Cherry. The variety has long since passed from general cultivation in the United States and can now be found only in collections or as an occasional dooryard tree.

This cherry was raised early in the Nineteenth Century by T. A. Knight, Downton Castle, Wiltshire, England, and first fruited in 1815, shortly after the Battle of Waterloo, hence its name. It was supposed to be a cross between Yellow Spanish and May Duke. The variety was brought to this country by Honorable John Lowell of Newton, Massachusetts, though it was described by Prince in 1828 from European fruit books. The following description is compiled:

Tree vigorous, thrifty, rather irregular and spreading, productive; branchlets thick, stocky, grayish; leaves large, drooping, wavy; margin slightly serrate; flowers large; stamens shorter than the pistil.

Fruit matures the last of June or early in July; large, obtuse-cordate, broad at the base, convex on one side, flattened on the other; stem one and one-half to two inches in length, slender; color dark purplish-red becoming nearly black at maturity; skin thin; flesh purplish-red becoming darker next to the stone, firm but tender, juicy, fine flavored, sweet; good in quality; stone separating readily from the pulp, small, roundish-ovate, compressed.