192 THE PLUM FAMILY. 



for the brows of steep, overhanging banks, where it can tower in its 

 snowy pride. Fl. April, May. Fruit ripe in August. 



E. B. X. 700; Baxter, ii. 100 (both as Prunus Cerams). 

 The true Prunus Cerasus (E. B., Supp. iii. 2863.) is quite a different tree, seldom 

 exceeding eight feet in height, whereas the avium rises to thirty or forty. 



3. Black-thokn or Sloe — {^Primus spinusa.) 

 Hedges, everywhere ; its immaculate white flowers anticipating the 

 leaves, and giving one of the first indications of the approach of 

 spring. FI. March, April. 



E. B. xii. 843. 

 The fruit rarely ripens near Manchestei", nor anywhere so well, perhaps, as 

 near the sea. At Clevedon, twelve miles south-west of Bristol, where the breeze 

 off the channel turns every bush into half an arch, and the salt spray is their 

 daily visitant, not a tlower seems to fail, the round plums, covered with beautiful 

 purple " bloom," being well-nigh as plentiful as the leaves. The plant takes the 

 rather odd name of " hlack-ihoxn " from the circumstance of its leaflessness when 

 the flowers open. 



4. Wild Plum — {Primus insitUia.) 

 Woods and hedges, but not common. Levenshulme (in fruit). 

 Between Bowdon old Church and the Chester Road. Frequent about 

 Leigh. (J. E.) Formerly common at Prestwich. (J. P.) Fl. April. 



E. B. xii. 841. 



The almond, or Amygdalus communis, opening its pink flowers before the leaves, 

 and ripening its fruit moderately well in average seasons, is a common and 

 favourite ornament of plantations ; hut neither so plentiful nor so conspicuous as 

 the white-flowered and evergreen laurels, — the Portugal, or Prunus Lusit&nica, and 

 the common laurel, or P. lauro-cvrasus, the little plums of which often ripen 

 towards October. The palm of beauty belongs to the double-blossomed cherry, 

 which only wants perfume 1o rival the white rose. The peach, or Pirsica vulg&ris, 

 the nectarine, or P. Icevis, and the apricot, or Armeniaca, all do well southwards, 

 but elsewhere indifferently. Cherries, plums, and damsons, especially tlie latter, 

 are produced in abundance, Cheshire being the chief seat of their cultivation. 



It is interesting to observe, with the quick-eyed and poetical Linnanis, that all 

 our most precious fruit-trees are contained in this and the preceding family, and 

 that (omitting the peacli, which is a foreign luxury rather than a household fruit), 

 the flowers, with the exception of the apple, are white as milk. Those of the pear, 

 the quince, the plum, the cherry, the damson, the greengage, are pure wliite; so are 

 the blossoms of the medlar and tlio apricot, and among small plants, those of the 

 raspbeiTj- and the strawberry. All bloom, moreover, in the spring, and nearly 

 together, Pomona's virgin wedding-robes, the apple, most precious of all, disclosing 

 her Vdushes. 



