A cherry which "brings forth his fruit sooner and greater than the other" can be no other than one of the early varieties of the Sweet Cherry.
"The Spanish Cherry tree groweth up to the height of our common Cherry tree, the wood or timber is soft and loose, covered with a whitish scaly barke, the branches are knotty, greater and fuller of substance than any other Cherry tree; the leaves are likewise greater and longer than any of the rest, in shape like those of the Chestnut tree: the floures are like the others in form, but whiter of colour; the fruit is greater and longer than any, white for the most part all over, except those that stand in the hottest place where the sun hath some reflexion against a wall: they are also white within, and of a pleasant taste."
We have in this description a very good pen picture of Yellow Spanish, one of the Bigarreaus, of which there must have been several in common cultivation in Gerarde's time.
"The Gascoin Cherry tree groweth very like to the Spanish Cherry tree in stature, flours and leaves: it differeth in that it bringeth forth very great Cherries, long, sharp pointed, with a certain hollownesse upon one side, and spotted here and there with certain prickles of purple color as smal as sand. The taste is most pleasant, and excelleth in beauty."
Gascoin, sometimes "Gaskin" in England, is a corruption of Gascoigne, a name applied by the French to cherries produced in Gascony and said to have been brought to England by Joan of Kent when her husband, the Black Prince, was commanding in Guienne and Gascony. The variety is a very good Sweet Cherry, no doubt the one described in this text under the name Bleeding Heart.
"The late ripe Cherry tree groweth up like unto our wild English Cherry tree, with the like leaves, branches and floures, saving that they are sometimes once doubled; the fruit is small, round, and of a darke bloudy colour when they be ripe, which the Frenchmen gather with their stalkes, and hang them up in their houses in bunches or handfulls against Winter, which the Physitions do give unto their patients in hot and burning fevers, being first steeped in a little warme water, that causeth them to swell and plumpe as full and fresh as when they did grow upon the tree.
"The Cluster Cherry tree differeth not from the last described either in leaves, branches, or stature: the floures are also like, but never commeth any one of them to be double. The fruit is round, red when they be ripe, and many growing upon one stem or foot-stalke in clusters, like as the Grapes do. The taste is not unpleasant although somewhat soure."
These two cherries, one sees at once, are varieties of Prunus cerasus. The first, Gerarde identifies for us on a succeeding page as the Morello. He says of it: "The late ripe cherries which the Frenchmen keepe dried against the winter, and are by them called Morelle, and wee after the same name call them Morell Cherries.
"This Cherrie-tree with double floures growes up unto a small tree, not unlike to the common Cherrie-tree in each respect, saving that the floures are somewhat double, that is to say, three or foure times double; after which commeth fruit (though in small quantitie) like the other common Cherry.
"The double floured Cherry-tree growes up like unto an hedge bush, but not so great nor high as any of the others, the leaves and branches differ not from the rest of the Cherry-tree. The floures hereof are exceeding double, as are the flours of Marigolds, but of a white colour, and smelling somewhat like the Hawthorne floures; after which come seldome or never any fruit, although some Authors have said that it beareth sometimes fruit, which my selfe have not at any time seen; notwithstanding the tree hath growne in my Garden many yeeres, and that in an excellent good place by a bricke wall, where it hath the reflection of the South Sunne, fit for a tree that is not willing to beare fruit in our cold climat."
These two are double-flowered cherries, several of which seem to have been grown as ornamentals. Both belong to Prunus cerasus and as we gather rather better elsewhere than here, both are of the Amarelle type of tree.
"The Birds Cherry-tree, or the blacke Cherry-tree, that bringeth forth very much fruit upon one branch (which better may be understood by sight of the figure, than by words) springeth up like an Hedge tree of small stature, it groweth in the wilde woods of Kent, and are there used for stockes to graft other Cherries upon, of better tast, and more profit, as especially those called the Flanders Cherries: this wilde tree growes very plentifully in the North of England, especially at a place called Heggdale, neere unto Rosgill in Westmerland, and in divers other places about Crosbie Ravenswaith, and there called Hegberrie-tree: it groweth likewise in Martome Parke, foure miles from Blackeburne, and in Harward neere thereunto; in Lancashire almost in every hedge; the leaves and branches differ not from those of the wilde Cherry-tree: the floures grow alongst the small branches, consisting of five small white leaves, with some greenish and yellow thrums in the middle: after which come the fruit, greene at the first, blacke when they be ripe, and of the bignesse of Sloes; of an harsh and unpleasant taste.
"The other birds Cherry-tree differeth not from the former in any respect, but in the colour of the berries; for as they are blacke; so on the contrary, these are red when they be ripe, wherein they differ."