fastidious as to soils, thriving only in choice cherry land and in a
congenial cherry climate. Despite these rather serious faults,
cherry-growers agree that Napoleon takes first place among Sweet
Cherries for both home and commercial plantings.
Napoleon is of unknown origin. Early in the Eighteenth Century it was
grown by the Germans, French, Dutch and English, proof that it is a very
old variety. Leroy believes that it was described by Merlet in 1667 but
under another name. The great number of synonyms in several languages
gives some idea of the countries in which the variety has been grown
as well as the esteem in which it has been held. There are several
accounts as to when the cherry was given the name Napoleon. Probably the
best authenticated is that in which it is held that Parmentier, a
Belgian, gave the cherry the name of the famous emperor in 1820. When
the variety was taken to England, where at that time Napoleon was not in
good repute, the name of his conqueror, Wellington, was substituted but
seems to have been little used. As if not content with the score or more
of European names, cherry-growers in America have added at least two
more. In many parts of the country it is locally called the Ox Heart. On
the Pacific Coast it is grown and sold by nurserymen and fruit-growers
alike as Royal Ann, a name given it by its introducer, Seth Lewelling,
of Milwaukee, Oregon, who lost the label bearing the old name in taking
it across the Continent in early days and gave it a new name. With
incomprehensible persistency Western horticulturists maintain this
synonym to the confusion of horticultural nomenclature. The American
Pomological Society placed Napoleon on its fruit list in 1862, it having
been grown in America for at least 40 years before receiving this honor.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON]
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped, very
productive; trunk thick, shaggy; branches thick, roughened by the
lenticels, dull brown overlaid with ash-gray, with numerous large,
raised lenticels; branchlets thick, long, light brown overspread
with gray, smooth, with a few inconspicuous, small lenticels.
Leaves numerous, five and three-fourths inches long, two and
one-half inches wide, folded upward, elliptical to obovate; upper
surface dark green, rugose; lower surface light green, somewhat
pubescent; apex acute, base variable in shape; margin doubly
serrate, with small, dark glands; petiole one and one-fourth
inches long, thick, tinged with dull red, hairy along the upper
surface, with from one to three large, reniform, reddish-orange
glands, usually on the stalk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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