Ostheim finds considerable favor in the prairie states of the Middle West but is all but worthless as grown in New York and other eastern states. It is one of the Morellos and falls far short of the best of its group, the cherries being too small and of but mediocre quality. The trees are typical Morellos, round-headed, with slender, drooping branches and branchlets and very dark green foliage. The fruit is borne toward the ends of short branches which are not well distributed over the main branches, leaving much bare wood. Like all Morellos the fruit hangs long after maturity and since the ripening season is late the variety may be worth growing because of its lateness; as it may, also, in cold climates because of great hardiness. The trees on their own roots throw up many suckers which are often used in propagation. The variety has the reputation, too, of coming true to name from seeds.

Ostheim is a native of Spain and not of Germany as many have supposed. The trees were found in the region of the Sierra Morena Mountains, Spain, and were taken to Germany by a Dr. Klinghammer after the Wars of the Succession, 1701-1713. The cherry took the name Ostheim from the German town of that name where it was widely grown. The variety, being easily propagated, spread throughout Germany and soon became one of the best-known cherries. Later, the name seems to have come to be a class term for all cherries similar to the original Ostheim. The names Ostheim, Ostheimer, Griotte Ostheim and Ostheimer Weichsel are used interchangeably by foreign writers for this variety. American writers, however, have given these names to two very similar but distinct varieties. Ostheim was brought to the United States by William Robert Prince of the Linnean Botanical Gardens early in the Nineteenth Century. It has proved very satisfactory in some sections of the West and Canada, while in the East it is but a mediocre variety at best. At different times either buds or trees of so-called Ostheims have been imported to this country which have turned out not to be the true variety. What these sorts really are will remain uncertain until the several forms can be brought together and compared. Professor Budd imported a variety in 1883, which since has become known as Ostheim, carrying Griotte d'Ostheim as a synonym. Whether or not this is the old variety or a distinct strain of the Ostheim class we are unable to say. The Cerise d'Ostheim received by this Station has proved identical with this variety. Ostheim was first listed by the American Pomological Society in 1899. A cherry known as Minnesota Ostheim, introduced into Minnesota from Germany, is now recognized as a distinct sort. The variety as it is known in Kansas and Missouri is often called the German Ostheimer though some believe this to be different from the true sort.

OSTHEIM

Tree below medium in size, vigorous, upright-spreading, with drooping branchlets, dense, very productive; trunk smooth; branches rather slender, smooth, dark ash-gray partly overspreading reddish-brown, with small, raised lenticels; branchlets slender, willowy, long, brown partly overspread with ash-gray, smooth, glabrous, with small, inconspicuous lenticels.

Leaves very numerous, three and one-fourth inches long, one and one-half inches wide, folded upward, obovate to oval; upper surface very dark green, smooth; lower surface pale green, with a few scattering hairs; apex taper-pointed, base variable in shape; margin finely serrate, with small, dark glands; petiole slender, one-half inch long, short, tinged with dull red, grooved, with a few scattering hairs, with from one to three small, globose, greenish-yellow glands at the base of the blade.

Buds small, short, usually obtuse, plump, free, arranged as lateral buds and in small clusters on short spurs; leaf-scars prominent; season of bloom medium; flowers one inch across, white; borne in scattering clusters, in twos and threes; pedicels five-eighths of an inch long, rather slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green with a faint tinge of red, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes with a trace of red, rather long, serrate, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals obovate, entire, nearly sessile, apex entire; filaments one-fourth inch long; pistil glabrous, nearly equal in length to the stamens.

Fruit matures very late; nearly three-fourths of an inch in diameter, roundish to slightly oblate, compressed; cavity very shallow and narrow, flaring; suture indistinct; apex roundish with a small depression at the center; color very dark red approaching black; dots numerous, small, dark russet, inconspicuous; stem slender, one and one-fourth inches long, but slightly adherent to the fruit; skin thin, tender, separating readily from the pulp; flesh dark red, with much very dark colored juice, tender and melting, sprightly, tart, losing its astringency when fully ripe; of fair quality; stone free, nearly one-half inch in diameter, roundish-oblate, somewhat pointed, with smooth surfaces slightly stained with red.

OX HEART

Prunus avium

Ox Heart is very commonly used as a class name for the large, meaty varieties of cherries which are cordate in shape. In America the name is most often given to the light-fleshed cherries, such as Yellow Spanish, Napoleon or White Bigarreau. At one time, however, the name was applied to a distinct variety known throughout England, Germany and America, being first mentioned by Miller, an Englishman, in 1734. Coxe, in 1817, was the first American writer to list the variety but it never became popular in the New World. Ox Heart appeared among the fruits rejected by the American Pomological Society in 1858 and from then on it gradually gave way to better varieties. The synonyms of the true Ox Heart are badly confused not only with other dark-fleshed varieties but with those of the Yellow Spanish type. As some of these varieties are merely listed while others have but a meager description, it is impossible to separate or group them with any degree of certainty. In the 1909 catalog of the American Pomological Society there appears an Ox Heart of American origin and of recent introduction, known in the West as Major Francis. There are also in several nursery catalogs a "white-fleshed Ox Heart." What this variety is we are unable to say. The following is a description of Ox Heart compiled from European fruit books: