Fruit ripens early; usually borne in pairs; large, round; stem of medium length, rather thick; color very dark red, yet almost transparent; flavor slightly acid, yet considered one of the sweetest and richest of the Morello class. BAUMANN MAY _Prunus avium_ =1.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 168 fig. 60. 1845. =2.= _Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 74. 1862. =3.= Hogg _Fruit Man._ 279. 1884. _Frühe Maiherzkirsche._ =4.= Kraft _Pom. Aust._ =1=:1, Tab. 1. 1792. =5.= Truchsess-Heim _Kirschensort._ 140, 141, 142. 1819. =6.= _Ill. Handb._ 49 fig., 50. 1860. =7.= Mathieu _Nom. Pom._ 348, 349. 1889. _Süsse Maiherzkirsche._ =8.= Christ _Handb._ 662. 1797. _May Bigarreau._ =9.= Kenrick _Am. Orch._ 234. 1841. =10.= _Mag. Hort._ =7=:288. 1841. =11.= _Cultivator_ N. S. =4=:280 fig. 1. 1847. =12.= Hovey _Fr. Am._ =1=:55, 56, Pl. 1851. _Guigne Précoce de Mai._ =13.= Mortillet _Le Cerisier_ =2=:54 fig. 2, 55, 56. 1866. =14.= Mas _Pom. Gen._ =11=:51, 52, fig. 26. 1882. _Bigarreau Baumann._ =15.= Leroy _Dict. Pom._ =5=:176 fig., 177. 1877. _Guigne de Mai._ =16.= _Soc. Nat. Hort. France Pom._ 102 fig., 103. 1904. Baumann May is an early Sweet Cherry which at one time held high place among its kind but a century of culture proved that it had little value except for extreme earliness and it is now but sparingly or not at all grown either in America or abroad. If the variety could be obtained it might be worth growing for breeding work because of its earliness and great productiveness. At one time this variety was rather largely grown in central and western New York and specimens of it must yet remain in this region. From the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, when we first find an account of this variety in Kraft's _Pomona Austriaca_, to the last of the Nineteenth, writers have described Baumann May under many different names. From all accounts it originated toward the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, in Germany. From Germany it was introduced into Alsace where F. J. Baumann, a nurseryman at Bollweiler, grew it in his nursery under the name Bigarreau Baumann and disseminated it throughout the French provinces. The cherry was received in America, with several others, by Colonel M. P. Wilder of Boston, Massachusetts, from Messrs. Baumann, about the year 1838. The American Pomological Society listed the variety, in 1862, in its fruit catalog as Bauman's May but dropped it again in 1871. The following description is a compilation: