All of the early pomologists describe a Morello or a Morella but no one
of them definitely gives its place of origin. The concensus of opinion
is that it originated in either Holland or Germany from whence it was
introduced into England and later into France. The early German writers
listed a Grosse Lange Lothkirsche which is English Morello. Preceding
them, Duhamel described the Grosse Cerise à Ratafia "as one praised for
confitures and preserving," which is probably this cherry. Leroy
believed English Morello to be the cherry that Mortillet brought to
Paris from Holland calling it Griotte du Nord though he thought the
variety had been grown in France for many years previous but under
another name. It is possible that the term Du Nord originated through
its being widely grown as an espalier demanding a northern exposure,
rather than as some have thought, because it came from northern Germany.
In 1862 English Morello was put on the fruit list of the American
Pomological Society where it still remains. Wragg is thought to be
identical with this cherry by some and, if not, it differs but little.
Northern Griotte and Grosse Lange Lothkirsche, introduced by Budd from
Russia, are English Morello. Morris, or Colorado Morello, put out by
John Morris of Golden, Colorado, once thought to be distinct, is also
English Morello.
[Illustration: ENGLISH MORELLO]
Tree small, upright-spreading, with drooping branchlets,
dense-topped, productive; trunk slender, rough; branches slender,
smooth, dark brown overlaid with dark ash-gray, with numerous
small lenticels; branchlets slender, willowy, with short
internodes, brownish, smooth, with numerous conspicuous, small,
slightly raised lenticels.
Leaves numerous, two and three-fourths inches long, one and
one-half inches wide, folded upward, obovate to oval; upper
surface dark green, smooth; lower surface light green; apex acute,
base variable in shape; margin finely serrate, with small, dark
glands; petiole one-half inch long, tinged with dull red, grooved,
with from one to three small, globose or reniform, greenish-yellow
glands at the base of the blade.
Buds small, short, obtuse, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral
buds; leaf-scars obscure; season of bloom late; flowers one inch
across, white; borne in scattering clusters in twos and threes;
pedicels nearly one inch long, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube with
a faint tinge of red, somewhat campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes
with a trace of red, obtuse, serrate, glabrous within and without,
reflexed; petals distinctly veined, roundish, crenate, sessile,
with crenate apex; filaments one-fourth of an inch long; pistil
glabrous, shorter than the stamens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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