Genus PRUNUS, Tourn. 



Rosaceae. Icosandria Monogynia. 



Sytt. Nat. Syat. Lin. 



Synonymes. 



Frunus, Cerasus, Chamacerasus, Of Authors. 



Dtritation. The name Pruwis is said to have been of oriental origin, tlie wild plant, according to Galen, being called 

 proumnos in Asia. The Greek iiiime of llie plum, as mentioned by Theophrastus, is proune ; whence llie Latin, Prunus. 



Generic Characters. Drupe ovate or oblong, fleshy, quite smooth, covered with a pruinose powder. Pu- 

 lamen (stone) compressed, acute on both sides, somewhat furrowed at the edges, otherwise smooth. 

 Young leaves convolute. Pedicels umbellate-fasciculate, one-flowered, evolved before or after the 

 leaves. De Candolk, ProdronMS. 



^IIE species belonging to this genus are mostly deciduous, low trees 

 or shrubs, bearing edible fruit, natives of Europe, Asia, and North 

 America. Many of them are spiny in the wild state, and all have 

 showy flowers. The epidermis of the bark of the plum, as well 

 as that of the birch and cherry, is readily divisible transversely, 

 and may frequently be seen divided, in this manner, into rings on 

 the tree. There are upwards of thirty species enumerated in catalogues ; but it 

 is a question whether one-half of them are not mere varieties. To this genus, 

 formerly belonged the Apricot, {^Armeniaca vulgaris., of Tournefort, De Candolle, 

 Loudon, and otliers,) and for the convenience of classification, we have retained 

 the Linnaian name. This tree is in general cultivation throughout the temperate 

 regions of the globe, and is distinguished, at first sight, from the almond, peach, 

 and nectarine, by its heart-shaped, smooth, shining leaves, and white flowers. 

 There are several wild varieties, bearing flowers of different shades of pink, and 

 are chiefly cultivated for ornament. The great beauty of both the wild and the 

 cultivated sorts of the apricot is, that in high latitudes, they generally come into 

 bloom before most other trees. The most noted species of this genus proper, are 

 the domestic cultivated puim (Prunus domestica) : the sloe, or black thorn, of 

 Europe (Prunus spinosa) ; the engrafted, or bullace plum (Prunus insititia) ; 

 the beach-plum (Prunus maritima) ; and the moose or American wild plum 

 (Prunus americana.) The latter is said to be the only species indigenous to 

 North America which has a flat stone, groved on both margins. The other spe- 

 cies native of this country, are somewhat intermediate in their fruit, between the 

 cherry and the plum, the stone being slightly compressed, and the glaucous bloom 

 wanting, except in the Prunus maritima ; yet they are evidently Plums and not 

 Cherries, in the opinion of Torrey and Gray, and cannot with propriety be sepa- 

 rated from this genus. The beach-plum alaounds along the sandy sea-coast of 

 the United States, from Maine to Alabama. The moose-plum occurs on the 

 banks of streams and other waters, in hedges, and on prairies, from Canada to 

 Texas, and is often cultivated with success. Both of these species are said to 

 escape the attacks of the curculio, as no warts or excrescences are found upon 

 them, even when growing in the immediate vicinity of infested foreign trees. 

 Hence it has been suggested that they might be propagated to advantage from 

 the stone, for the purpose of grafting or budding other fruits upon. 



