114 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
the exterior portion of the pericarp fleshy or dry, separating when 
mature from the inner layer, which is woody and forms the 
so-called stone of the fruit which incloses the seed or kernel. Seed 
mostly solitary. 
GENUS I—PRUNUS. Linn. 
Calyx with the tube urceolate-hemispherical, 5-toothed, the 
segments imbricated in estivation, the upper part deciduous. 
Petals 5, spreading, inserted in the throat of the calyx. Stamens 
15 to 30, inserted close within the petals. Drupe fleshy, with 
the stone smooth or furrowed, containing a single seed. 
Trees or shrubs, with leaves varying from obovate to oblong or 
elliptical, serrate or crenate at the margins, generally furnished 
with glands on the petiole close to the base of the lamina. Stipules 
small. Flowers produced early, solitary, in pairs, or in umbels or 
racemes. 
The name of this genus of plants is said to be of Asiatic origin, the wild plant, 
according to Galen, being called zpoupvoc (prowmnos) in Asia. The Greek name for 
the plum is zpouvn (prowné) : it occurs in Theophrastus. 
Suzs-Genus I.—EU-PRUNUS. 
Young leaves convolute. Flowers lateral, solitary or in pairs, 
produced from flower-buds distinct from the leaf-buds, expanding 
before the leaves or at the same time with them. Drupe covered 
externally with a whitish bloom; stone compressed, somewhat 
sulcated at the margins, slightly rugose on the faces. 
SPECIESI—PRUNUS COMMUNIS. JZuds. 
Puates CCCCVIII. CCCCIX. CCCCX. 
Leaves oblong-oblanceolate, elliptical, oblong-obovate, or obovate, 
coarsely and bluntly serrated, appearing after the flowers or along 
with them. Peduncles solitary or in pairs (rarely 3 or 4 together). 
Fruit ovoid or globose. 
Sus-Srecres L—Prunus spinosa. Linn. 
Prate CCCCVIII. 
P. communis, a spinosa, Bab. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 91. Benth. Handbook Brit. 
Fl. p. 185. Hook. & Arn, Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 118. 
al 
