OO PRUNUS. SPIRiEA. 



159. P. PADUS. Bird-Cherry. Is found in almost all our wooded 

 deans as a shrub ; but, when planted and allowed to grow unchecked, 

 it becomes a considerable tree, very beautiful when in flower. There 

 is a fine specimen in the garden at Newwaterhaugh. The shrub is 

 called f^acfeiuootJ, and the fruit f^acfettrrw or f^atjhfrrp. It has the 

 same name in Westmoreland and Cumberland ; and in Sweden we 

 also find it named Hagg, which, it seems, means Hedge-berry. Lin- 

 naeus says — " Baccse nauseosse a quibusdam sale adspersae avide in- 

 gurgitantur ;" and Mr. Hodgson tells us that the fruit is eaten in 

 the mountain districts of Cumberland. In Berwickshire, on the- 

 coiitraiy, the fruit is reckoned poisonous, and children are taught to 

 avoid it. 



160. P. AVIUM. Cerasus avium et C. Juliana, Don Gard. Diet. 

 ii. 505. The (i§ran4rcf. Occurs in some of our wildest deans, e.ff. 

 in Dulaw dene, and in Blackburn-rigg wood, &c. ; and often natural- 

 ized in plantations and in hedges. It might be cultivated with ad- 

 vantage to a larger extent. "As an ornamental tree it is also well worth 

 cultivating, as it produces a profusion of flowers from an early age, 

 and at an early period of the year ; these, from their snowy whiteness, 

 contrast well with the blossom of the almond and the scarlet thorn. 

 Its foliage, also, is handsome, though rather too unifonn and unbroken 

 to produce picturesque effect ; m the autumn, when it assumes 

 a deep purplish-red colour, it gives great richness to the landscape, 

 and contrasts well with the yellows and browns which predominate 

 at that season," P. J. Selby, Brit. Forest Trees, p. 63. — The just- 

 ness of these remarks of our distinguished colleague will not be dis- 

 puted by any member of the Club who has had the pleasure of seeing 

 the fine Gean-trees on the haugh of the Blackadder at Allanbank in 

 May. 



9. SpircBa salicifolia. Sometimes planted out in woods, and com- 

 mon in shrubberies, but scarcely naturalized. B. Marchmont woods. 

 Dr. R. D. Thomson. It used to grow almost in a thicket in a belt 

 of plantation which led from Chirnside to the Blue-stane ford, but it 

 was eradicated thence, when the trees were cut down a few years 

 since. July. 



161. Sp. ulmaria. 0(cat(olo;^lucct : ^iiccnjof4!jc-fHcat)olu, 

 and not unworthy of the name. In the olden times, when, even in 

 our district*, 



" With rose and swete flores 

 Was strawed halles and bouris," 



and for an account of which custom we refer the reader to the British 



* In 1 364, the Vicar of Norham agrees, on his part, duly to serve the 

 church, and supply it " with strewments "; viz. with rushes and herbs to 

 strew the floor. Raine's Hist. N. Durham, p. 2/8. — In 1528 when AthoU 

 entertained the Queen and her son James V. in the Highlands, a " fair 

 palace," built for the occasion, had its principal rooms " laid with green 

 scarets, spreats, medworts, and flowers, that no man knew whereon he trod, 

 but as if he were in a garden." Strickland's Queens of Scotland, i. p. 240. 

 — The Medwort is the Meadow-sweet. See Lyte's New Ilerball, p. 48. 



