THE PLUM FAMILY. 191 



to the leaves of the common laurel, and occasions them to be used in 

 making custards, while it explains the deadly properties of " laurel 

 water." It is the same secretion which recommends the kernels of 

 stone-fruits for ratafia and other articles of confectionery. The bark, 

 in several instances, yields gum, familiar in the oozings from the 

 sores of plum-trees, and in the transparent tears of the garden cherry, 

 hanging from the boughs like amber icicles. 



About a hundred species are known, six groAving wild in England, 

 and four of them near Manchester, all with white flowers. 



1. Flowers in axillary, pendulous racemes of three to four inches ] -o n 



1 .1 ^V . Ill * fw ^BikdChedey. 



m length, and fragrant ; a small but graceiul tree J 



2. Flowers in umbellate, nearly sessile, clusters, the peduncles afj 



least an inch long ; a tree often attaining considerable height, r WildCheery. 

 and bushy at the upper part J 



S. Flowers solitary, nearly sessile, appearing before the leaves, ^ 



which are glabrous; a stiff, hard, much branched, very I Black-thoen. 

 thorny bush, or small tree ) 



4. Flowers in pairs, cotemporaneous with the young leaves, the' 



latter downy on the under side; habit of growth like the -Wild Plum. 

 preceding,but taller and less thorny 



There is good reason to believe that the two last-named are but 

 forms of a single species, the black-thorn being, perhaps, the normal 

 state ; and that even the cultivated plum, or P. domestica, with its 

 innumerable varieties, is a descendant of the same original stock. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 



1. Bird Cherry — [Primus Pddus.) 



Woods and hedges. Agecroft, Blakeley, and abundant in the Red- 

 dish Valley and near Marple Aqueduct, growing tali and elegantly. 



Fl. May, June. 



E. B. XX. 1383. 



The racemes hear a good deal of resemblance to those of the Portugal laurel, 

 but are drooping instead of erect, as in the latter species. 



2. Wild Cherry — {Primus avium.) 



Woods and thickets, especially on their borders, common. Prest- 

 wich Dells ; Dunham ; Lymm, abundant about the upper end of the 

 Mere, and ripening its fruit plentifully ; Arden ; Marple ; Ashley, 

 and between the latter and Cotterill Clough, on the borders of the 

 swift-flowing BoUin, abundant and beautiful, and shewing its fondness 



