This variety has been much confused with other cherries, particularly
Montmorency, Early Richmond and Short Stem Montmorency. Bradley, in
1739, mentioned a Flemish cherry which undoubtedly was the Large
Montmorency of today, for the name Flemish has rather commonly been
applied to this sort since Bradley's time. There is no doubt but that
Large Montmorency sprang up about the same time as the true Montmorency,
in the Montmorency Valley in France. It may have been a seedling of the
Cerise Hâtive, afterwards known as Early Richmond, though some writers
are of the opinion that the Montmorencies and Cerise Hâtive were all
seedlings of the old Cerise Commune. At any rate, there have come to be
at least three distinct types of Montmorency: the true Montmorency with
long stems and moderate-sized fruit, called Montmorency à Longue Queue
or, in America, Montmorency Ordinaire; the Large Montmorency with its
large fruit and shorter, thicker stems, commonly known by the French and
German writers as Montmorency à Gros Fruit, Gros Gobet, Grosse
Glaskirsche von Montmorency and sometimes as Montmorency à Courte Queue;
and the Short-Stem Montmorency, often called Montmorency à Courte Queue
and sometimes Gros Gobet. Large Montmorency has often been sold for
Montmorency, or for Early Richmond, hence the three varieties are more
or less confused. Large Montmorency probably came to America about the
same time as Montmorency and Early Richmond, early in the Nineteenth
Century. In 1875, Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, New York, disseminated
this sort quite extensively but later it proved too unproductive for
commercial use. It was soon replaced by the true Montmorency but often
the names were interchanged and large forms of the Montmorency were
thought to be this variety. The unproductiveness of this cherry has been
consistently mentioned by nearly every writer from Duhamel's time to the
present. Large Montmorency was added to the American Pomological
Society's catalog list of fruits in 1885 as Montmorency Large but in
1899 this name was changed to Large Montmorency.
[Illustration: LARGE MONTMORENCY]
Tree rather large, vigorous, upright, vasiform, unproductive;
trunk thick, roughened; branches stocky, nearly smooth,
reddish-brown overspread with dark ash-gray, with numerous
large, raised, conspicuous lenticels; branchlets thick, short,
brown tinged with bronze, smooth except for the large, numerous
yellowish, conspicuous, raised lenticels.
Leaves numerous, three and one-half inches long, one and
three-fourths inches wide, folded upward, broad-oval to obovate,
thick, stiff; upper surface dark green, slightly rugose; apex
acute, base variable in shape; margin serrate, glandular; petiole
one inch long, tinged with dull red, glandless or with from one to
three globose, yellow or brownish glands, usually at the base of
the blade.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account