476. C. capricida Wall. cat. No. 718. — Prunus undulata 

 Don. prodr. 239. C. undulata DC. prodr. ii. 540 Hima- 

 laya Mountains. 



Leaves ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, finely glandular-serrate, decidu- 

 ous, thin, quite smooth on each side, light green and shining beneath ; 

 petioles without glands. Racemes very finely downy, axillary, but 

 little longer than the leaves. Flowers 6mall, white. Segments of 

 calyx obtuse. — So poisonous as to kill goats in Nepal. 



PRUNUS. 



Calyx inferior, bell-shaped, deciduous, with 5 obtuse concave 

 segments. Petals 5, roundish, concave, spreading, larger than 

 the segments of the calyx, their short claws proceeding from its 

 rim. Filaments 20-30, awl-shaped, nearly as long as the co- 

 rolla, from the rim of the calyx within the petals. Anthers 

 short, of 2 round lobes. Ovary superior, roundish ; style thread- 

 shaped, terminal, the length of the stamens; stigma orbicular, 

 peltate. Drupe roundish or elliptical. Nut very hard, some- 

 what compressed, of 1 cell and 2 more or less distinct sutures 

 with an intermediate furrow. Leaves rolled up when young. 



477. P. Cocumilia Tenore prodr. suppl. ii. 67. DC. prodr. 

 }\. 538. Att. r. ist. incoragg. iv. 444. c. ic. jl. neap. t. 144. — 

 Woods of the lower mountains of Calabria. 



Peduncles short, in pairs. Leaves elliptical obovate acuminate at 

 each end, smooth, crenulate ; crenatures and peduncles covered with 

 deciduous glands. Fruit ovate-oblong, mucronulate, austere. — The 

 bark of this plant, which seems to be nothing more than a wild state of 

 our domestic Plum, is spoken of in the highest terms as a remedy for 

 the intermittent fevers of Calabria. In Neapolitan hospitals it has been 

 found superior to Cinchona. 



478. P. spinosa Linn. sp. pi. 681 . Eng. Bot. t. 842. Woodv. 

 t. 84. DC. prodr. ii. 532. Smith Eng. Flu. 357. —Com- 

 mon in the woods and hedges of all Europe. (Sloe.) 



A rigid bushy shrub, with sharp spinous branches ; the bark blackish, 

 a little glaucous and polished. Leaves scarcely an inch long ; the 

 earlier ones obovate ; all smooth, except when very young. Flowers 

 pure white, copious, earlier than the leaves, solitary, on short simple 

 stalks, each from a small bud at the bases of the leaf-buds. Calyx 

 spreading. Petals with scarcely any claws. Fruit globular, black, 

 rather larger than a black currant, acid, astringent, and very austere, 

 not eatable except when baked or boiled with a large proportion of 

 sugar. — The juice, inspissated over a slow fire, is a substitute for 

 Catechu. In some form or other, this juice is said to be used in fac- 

 titious or adulterated Port wine. The leaves also are reckoned among 

 the adulterations of tea in England. They possess, in fact, a portion 

 of that peculiar aromatic flavour which exists in Spiraea Ulmaria, the 

 American Gualtheria, and some other plants, and which resembles the 

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