The seed parent is given for 61 varieties. The statements as to seed parents are probably accurate, for a man planting cherry seeds would record the name of the seed parent correctly if he knew it. The seed and pollen parents of twenty of the cherries described in this work are given. Sixteen of these are hybrids originating with Professor N. E. Hansen of South Dakota, leaving but four sorts the parents of which were known before the recent work of Professor Hansen. No cherry cultivated for its fruit is reported to have come from a sport or a bud-mutation. Cherries arising from seed sown without knowledge of either parent or from natural seedlings are put down as chance seedlings; of these there are 147. The origin of 917 of the varieties here described is unknown. The total number of cherries under discussion is 1,145. To improve the cherry the breeder must know the material with which he is working. The following is a brief discussion of the characters of this fruit to be found in the technical descriptions of species and varieties. TREE AND FRUIT CHARACTERS OF THE CHERRY Species of cherries have very characteristic trees. The merest glance at the tree enables one to tell the Sweet Cherry, _Prunus avium_, from the Sour Cherry, _Prunus cerasus_. The first named is the larger of the two, especially reaching a greater height, is pyramidal in shape, with branches erect and bearing much less foliage than the Sour Cherry. The Sweet Cherry often lives for a century or more--the Sour Cherry attains but the three score years and ten of man. _Prunus cerasus_ is easily distinguished from _Prunus avium_ by its comparatively low, roundish and never pyramidal head. So, too, many of the varieties of either of these two species are readily told in the orchard by the size or habit of the plant. Other species are either shrubby or tree-like and their varieties may often be identified from the spaciousness or dwarfness of its trees. Size is rather more variable than other gross characters because of the influence of environment--food, moisture, light, isolation, pests and the like--yet size in a plant, or in the parts of a plant, is a very reliable character when proper allowances have been made for environment.