PRUNUS SPINOSA. ORD. XXVIII. Pomacee. 519 
upon short peduncles: the calyx is small, and divided at the brim 
into five oval segments: the corolla is composed of five oblong 
concave petals, attached to the calyx by short claws: the filaments 
are in number from twenty to thirty, spreading, tapering, white, 
inserted in the calyx, and furnished with orange coloured anthere: 
the germen is roundish, the style simple and slender, and the. 
stigma orbicular: the fruit is of the drupous or cherry kind, 
though much smaller, of a black colour, but covered. with a bright 
blue exudation, and contains a nut with an oblong kernel. It is 
common in hedges, and the flowers appear in Laencone and April, 
before. the leaves are visible. 
The fruit of the Sloe-bush, or, as it.is frequently called, Black-. 
thorn, is so harshly sharp and austere as not to be eatable till 
thoroughly mellowed by frosts: its juice is extremely viscid, so 
that the fruit requires the addition of a little water, in order to 
admit of expression. The juice obtained from the unripe fruit,. 
* and inspissated to dryness by a gentle heat, is the German acacia, 
and has been usually sold in the shops for the Egyptian acacia, 
from which.it differs in being harder, heavier, darker coloured, of 
a sharper taste, and more especially 1 in giving out its astringency 
to rectified spirit. * 
The Pruna sylvestria have been employed for their styptic 
powers since the time of Dioscorides;* and: as their -astringency is 
united to the refrigerant qualities of the fruit, they may sometimes 
supersede those medicines of this class which are of a resinous - 
or heating quality. They have been recommended in diarrhzas, 
hemorrhagic affections, and’ as gargles, in tumefactions of the 
tonsils and uvula. Dr. Cullen considers the Sloe. as the- most 
powerful of the fructus acerbi, and adds, that he has often found . 
it an agreeable and useful astringent; but he thinks the conserve 
of this fruit, as directed by the College, contains a larger pro- 
portion of sugar than is necessary.‘ 
* Lewis Mat. Med. p. 522. > -Diosc. Mat: Med. Lib. i. cap. 173. . 
© Vide Mat. Med. vol. ii. p. 41. 
