Leaves of medium number, three and one-fourth inches long, one and
three-fourths inches wide, folded upward, obovate to elliptical,
thick, stiff; upper surface very dark green, glossy, smooth; lower
surface medium green, finely pubescent along the midrib and larger
veins; apex and base acute; margin finely and doubly serrate, with
small, dark glands; petiole three-fourths of an inch long, thick,
tinged with dull red, grooved, with a few hairs along the upper
surface, with from one to four small, globose, orange-colored
glands usually at the base of the blade.
Buds small, short, variable in shape, plump, free, arranged singly
as lateral buds and in few, very small clusters; time of blooming
mid-season; flowers one and three-sixteenths inches across, white;
borne in dense clusters usually at the ends of branches or spurs,
well distributed, usually in threes; pedicels over one-half inch
long, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green, obconic, glabrous;
calyx-lobes broad, obtuse, serrate, glabrous within and without,
reflexed; petals roundish, entire, nearly sessile, with almost
entire apex; filaments one-fourth inch long; pistil glabrous,
equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit matures early; about three-fourths of an inch in diameter,
oblate, not compressed; cavity of medium depth, narrow, abrupt;
suture lacking; apex flattened or strongly depressed; color bright
currant-red; dots numerous, light colored, slightly conspicuous;
stem thick, less than one inch long, adherent to the fruit; skin
rather tough, separating from the pulp; flesh pale yellow, with
colorless juice, tender and melting, sour; of good quality; stone
semi-free, clinging only along the ventral suture, about one-third
inch in diameter, roundish, slightly flattened, blunt, with smooth
surfaces.
SPARHAWK
_Prunus avium_
=1.= Kenrick _Am. Orch._ 219, 220. 1835.
_Sparhawk's Honey._ =2.= Downing _Fr. Trees Am._ 177. 1845. =3.=
_Am. Pom. Soc. Cat._ 74. 1862. =4.= _Mas Le Verger_ =8=:143, 144,
fig. 70. 1866-73.
_Honey Heart._ =5.= Cole _Am. Fr. Book_ 234 fig. 37, 235. 1849.
Sparhawk has little to recommend it for either a home or commercial
orchard; but the rich and honeyed sweetness of the cherries, scarcely
surpassed in flavor, might make it worth planting by plant-breeders and
connoisseurs of choicely good fruits. The name "honey" which appears in
several of the synonyms is indicative of the flavor of the fruit. The
cherries are quite too small and the pits altogether too large for a
commercial product. The tree is upright-spreading, with numerous thick
branches over which the cherries are rather thickly scattered in ones,
twos and threes and never in clusters. The fruit-stems are
characteristically long and slender. Though of the Bigarreau group the
flesh is too tender to well withstand harvesting, shipping and the
brown-rot.
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