Cere

“ Other vegetation there is none, except that occasionally some gigantic cereus—emblem of barrenness—rears its contorted form into the thin clear air, and at night casts weird shadows athwart the moonlit level. ”

“ She roamed about in so wild a way, and with her hair so dishevelled, that people took her for some distracted creature, and never dreamed that this was Mother Ceres, who had the oversight of every seed which the husbandman planted. Nowadays, she gave herself no trouble about seed-time nor harvest, but left the farmers to take care of their own affairs, and the crops to fade or flourish, as the case might be. ”

“ The cereals cultivated in Europe consist of four genera—wheat, rye, barley, and oats. Of wheat the best modern authorities [18] make four or five, or even seven distinct species; of rye, one; of barley, three; and of oats, two, three, or four species. So that altogether our cereals are ranked by different authors under from ten to fifteen distinct species. These have given rise to a multitude of varieties. It is a remarkable fact that botanists are not universally agreed on the aboriginal parent-form of any one cereal plant. ”

“ Seeds with very thin albumen; embryo straight; cotyledons abbreviated, hooked at apex; radicle conic.
Cereus with at least two hundred species inhabits the dry southwestern region of North America, the West Indies, tropical South America, and the Galapagos Islands. Of the numerous species found within the territory of the United States only one assumes the habit and size of a tree. The fruit of several species is edible, and the ribs of the durable woody frames of the stems of the large arborescent species are used for the rafters of houses and for fuel. ”

“ In them the Indians, who make the desert their home, find food, drink, raiment, and shelter. This is particularly true of the cereus giganteus, which is abundant in the arid regions of Southern Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. This plant grows, in many cases, to a height of fifty feet. In some sections it grows so thickly that several hundred plants are found on a single acre. The plant consists of a main trunk which rises to a height of from ten to twenty feet, and then branches into two, three, or several columns, which grow upright several feet. ”

“ In my own cultures of evening-primroses I have preferred the annuals and excluded the biennials, but without being able to produce a pure annual race. As soon as circumstances are favorable, the biennials return in large numbers. Cereals give analogous proofs. Summer and winter varieties have been cultivated separately for centuries, but in trials it is often easy to convert the one into the other. No real and definite isolation has resulted from the effect of the long continued unconscious selection. ”

“ I send a glass bottle filled with the pulp and seed of Cereus giganteus as gathered by the natives, and used for food, the same as what I formerly sent you a small quantity of in a letter, trusting the seeds would grow, as they are not subjected to heat in making this jam. ”

“ Mr Emory's first mention of this pillar-like plant is as follows:—
"At the point where we left the Gila, there stands a cereus six feet in circumference, and so high that I could not reach half way to the top of it with the point of my sabre by many feet; and a short distance up the ravine is a grove of these plants, much larger than the one I measured, and with large branches. These plants bear a saccharine fruit much prized by the Indians and Mexicans. They are without leaves, the fruit growing to the boughs. ”

“ For my part, I am so very little skilled in botany, that I hardly presume to offer my opinion; which is, that they are impressions and parts of species of the firs and pines, of the tithymals, the cereus's, and other arborescent plants, and of large reeds; for some of the said [232] kind are embellished with ribbed, studded, and reticulated works; e.g. the Hercules' club, or rubi facie senticosa planta Lobelii, described by Dr. Grew, Museum Reg. Soc. p. 221. the cerei, &c.
I further exhibit to the Society some few specimina of iron-stones with cones or iuli imbedded in them. ”

“ The precipitous walls of cliff soften into downs of limestone, which die in the rolling plain beyond Arpajon, where, thirteen miles away, one lovely hill, broken from the chain, and larger and more lovely than its fellows, rises soft and blue, shaped like the breast of Ceres. To the one hand, the scene is full of grandeur and melancholy; while the western landscape smiles, most tranquil and noble in its dreamy peace. ”

“ Twenty summers run to seed, a pale, dull complexion, eyes black and sparkling, but with the eyelids drooping, and surrounded by purple rings, a sarcastic mouth, the lips delicately curved and somewhat pale, shaded by a light mustache, hair smooth and silky, a head narrow at the temples, a slender throat, the back of the neck slightly hollowed in, flat wrists and a graceful shape made up a figure still immature, interrupted in its development by the chlorosis which is the result of a hothouse existence in which the plant that requires the pure, free air, dwindles and wilts. ”

“ Prunus cerasus is the Sour Cherry, or Pie Cherry, of many languages—grown and esteemed in temperate climates the world over and probably the most widely distributed of all tree fruits. The species is found truly wild, as we have set forth in detail in the following chapter, in southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe. It is a frequent escape from cultivation, multiplying from seed distributed by birds or human agencies or growing from suckers which spring so freely from the roots as to make the species unfit for a stock in orchard work. ”

“ If you understand how the single seedbox of the cherry blossom turns into the cherry fruit, then you understand how the same thing happens with the single seedboxes of the plum and the peach blossom.
You know that in the flowers of the pear and the apple there were several of these pins without dust boxes; and although these were joined below into a single seedbox, this had separate compartments for the many seeds.
But the single seedboxes of the cherry, the plum, and the peach, have but one hollow. Usually in this hollow we find only one seed. ”

“ The lighter seeds, as those of pines and maples, are transported chiefly by wind and water; the heavier, as acorns and nuts, by animals.
In all the pines, a very thin membrane, in appearance much like an insect's wing, grows over and around the seed, and independent of it, while the latter is being developed within its base. Indeed this is often perfectly developed, though the seed is abortive; nature being, you would say, more sure to provide the means of transporting the seed, than to provide the seed to be transported. ”

“ This kernel then dries as you see here, but when the nut falls on favourable soil, the germ within the kernel swells until it bursts through the shell, and, taking root, springs up a new tree.'
`I do not understand,' said Fritz, `how the little germ manages to get through this great thick shell, which is not like an almond or hazel-nut shell, that is divided down the middle already.'
`Nature provides for all things,' I answered, taking up the pieces. `Look here, do you see these three round holes near the stalk; it is through them that the germ obtains egress. ”

“ From Cerasus, in Asia, Lucullus, no doubt, transplanted a cultivated fruit-tree, of a peculiarly fine sort; but the fruit itself was not unknown to the Romans long anterior to the time of Lucullus. It was slow in acquiring an esteem in Italy. The most extraordinary species of cherry with which I am acquainted, is the Australian cherry, which grows with the stone on the outside. But Nature, in Australia, is distinguished for her freaks. There the pears are made of wood, and salt-water fish abound in the fresh-water rivers! ”

“ The number and diversity of the species of cherries which this brief review of Cerasus shows to exist suggest that our cultivated cherry flora is but begun. There can be no question but that others of these species than the few that have been domesticated will yield to improvement under cultivation and furnish refreshing fruits. It is just as certain that new types, as valuable perhaps as the hybrid Dukes we now have, can be produced through hybridization. ”

“ Only the head and six prolegs of the occupant ever emerge from its case. Dragging its house along upon the plant, it attaches the open mouth of the sack close to the green seed-pod, after which the shell is gnawed through at the point of contact, and the young seeds devoured at pleasure, when a new journey is made to the next capsule, and thus until the maturity of the larva. ”

“ IN a very large number of cases the diffusion of seeds is effected by animals. To this class belong the fruits and berries. In them an outer fleshy portion becomes pulpy, and generally sweet, inclosing the seeds. It is remarkable that such fruits, in order, doubtless, to attract animals, are, like flowers, brightly colored—as, for instance, the cherry, currant, apple, peach, plum, strawberry, raspberry, and many others. This color, moreover, is not present in the unripe fruit, but is rapidly developed at maturity. ”

“ Uvaria, for example, to which was attributed a many-celled fruit, and two rows of seed, was found to have a one-celled ovary, and the rows of ovules, if two, so close as scarcely to be distinguishable, and in truth forming a single line attached to the inner angle ; hence the many cells, and two rows of seed observed in the mature carpel, must be produced by mere condensation of the surrounding pulp, and the divergence of the free extremities, of the seed, since they are all attached along the same angle of the seed vessel. ”

“ In other cases members of the animal world aid in seed-dispersal. Fruits often bear stiff hairs or small hooks, which cling to the coat of an animal or the feathers of a bird; such are fruits of cleavers (Galium Aparine) , a common hedge-row plant, Ranunculus arvensis (fig. 20) , carrot, Geum, &c.; or the fruit or seed has an often bright-coloured, fleshy covering, which is sought by birds as food, as in stone-fruits such as plum, cherry (fig. 5) , &c., where the seed is protected from injury in the mouth or stomach of the animal by the hard endocarp ”

“ The birds bide the time when a blush upon the fruit betrays its ripeness. Then the cherries are greedily devoured, and their seed, preserved from digestion in their stony cases are borne over hill, dale, and river to some islet or brookside where a sprouting cherry plant will be free from the stifling rivalries suffered by its parent. ”

“ The Seeds are the sole "end and aim" of all the organs of fructification. Every other part is, in some manner, subservient to the forming, perfecting, or dispersing of these. A seed consists of several parts, some of which are more essential than others, and of these I shall speak first.
Embryo, the Embryo, or Germ, is the most essential of all, to which the rest are wholly subservient, and without which no seed is perfect, or capable of vegetation, however complete in external appearance. ”

“ Of all organs, the fruit of the cherry is most responsive to changed conditions and hence most variable, yet the fruits furnish very valuable taxonomic characters in both botany and pomology. In pomology, in particular, the fruits must be closely studied. Size, shape, color, bloom, stem, cavity, apex, suture and skin are the outward characters of which note must be made; while the color, aroma, flavor and texture of the flesh are usually very characteristic. Both species and varieties are well distinguished by the time of ripening though there is much variation in ripening dates. ”

“ The inner main Branches are two, diametrically opposite to each other, and at the Cork with the other inosculated. From these two are branched other smaller, every one having a Seed appendent to it, whose Coats it entreth by a double Filament, one at the Basis, the other at the Cone. They are all very white and turgent; [163] and by a slaunt cut, may be observ’d concave; thus representing themselves analogous to so many true spermatick Vessels.
The Uses of Fruits are for Man, (sometimes also other Animals, as are Akerns and Haws) and for the Seed. ”

“ All cherry-growers are familiar with the small, dark green, slimy slugs which feed on the surface of the leaves of the cherry, possibly more common on the foliage of pears, eating out the soft tissues and leaving but the skeleton of the leaf. ”

“ The cherry worm grows in the midst of the juice that feeds it; after attaining full size it falls from the tree with the damaged fruit and hastens to bury itself in the ground, there to undergo its transformation. Next spring it comes forth in the form of an elegant fly that lives on honey from the flowers and never again touches a cherry except to deposit its eggs therein, one by one. ”

“ In grain, and pulse, and kernels, and pipins, the germ composes a very small part of the seed. The rest consists of a nutritious substance, from which the sprout draws its aliment for some considerable time after it is put forth; viz., until the fibres, shot out from the other end of the seed, are able to imbibe juices from the earth, in a sufficient quantity for its demand. It is owing to this constitution that we see seeds sprout, and the sprouts make a considerable progress, without any earth at all. ”