ROSE TRIBE 215 



sliffht degree of down is on the midrib. These three forms of wild fruit trees 

 apparently run into each other. There are hundreds of varieties of the 

 garden and orchard fruits. Apricot Plums, Greengages, Magnum Bonum, 

 Mussel, Orleans, Catherine, and a number of others, are well known ; and 

 many sorts of Bullace and Damson are in general culture. It is probably 

 the frequent habit of eating these fruits in a half-ripened state which has led 

 to the belief that they are unwholesome ; but well-ripened plums, as well as 

 the French plums and prunes which we receive in a dried state from the 

 Continent, are vabiable additions to the dessert. Plum-trees generally thrive 

 best in an open situation. Their wood is useful to turners, and the bark 

 yields a good yellow dye. The French call the Plum-tree Le Prune. It is 

 the Prugnon of the Italians, and the Pflaumen of the Germans. 



* Fruit without bloom, young leaves folded together. 



2. Bird-cherry (P. pddus). — Flowers in drooping clusters; leaves 

 narrow, inversely egg-shaped, or oval, smooth; fruit oblong. The Bird- 

 cherry is a handsome shrub, or small tree. It grows in woods and coppices, 

 being most frequent in the north ; and its dark green leaves are much like 

 those of the Portugal laurel, and notched with large serratures, which are 

 again serrated. The white flowers appear in May, and are, as well as the 

 foliage, so ornamental, that the plant is often placed in shrubberies. In 

 many parts of Lapland it is one of the most attractive trees of the landscape, 

 and Von Buch describes it on the borders of the Muonio river as of great 

 beauty, growing among the dark spruce firs, and the lighter tinted willows, 

 and sombre alders. The small cherries, while in their unripened state, are 

 of a rich red tint, but when matured they are black. They are eaten by 

 birds, and the tree is on this account called Fowl-cherry. Cluster-cherry is 

 another name of the plant, and this fruit is the Hagberry of the Scotch. 

 Though positively nauseous to most palates, yet it is commonly eaten in 

 Siberia, and when steeped in spirits, it imparts to them the flavour of some 

 of the foreign liqueurs, as it contains, in some degree, the principle of 

 prussic acid. In Gerarde's time, the Kentish Cherry-growers were accus- 

 tomed to graft Cherries on it ; and it a2:)pears formerly to have been a much 

 more frequent plant in the Kentish woods than it now is. The tree is very 

 leafy, and the wood so beautifully veined, that it is much used in France for 

 ornamental cabinet-work. 



3. Wild Cherry, or Gean {P. avium). — Flowers in umbels, with cleft 

 petals ; leaves drooping, oblong, somewhat egg-shaped, serrated ; calyx-tube 

 contracted lieneath the entire sepals ; fruit heart-shaped. This is a large 

 and beautiful tree, frequent in woods and hedges, making them gay with its 

 white and slightly fragrant flowers, which tower in May above the snowy 

 clusters on the Hawthorn-bush. Many a joyous bird finds shelter on its 

 leafy bough, or comes to pick the young buds, and stays to sing his thanks- 

 giving for the meal. In summer the small black or red cherries furnish a 

 no less Avelcome repast to the birds which are shortly to depart to warmer 

 regions. In a still later season the tree is rendered conspicuous by the rich 

 red tint of its leaves. If we except those of the Cornel, which are usually 

 of deeper red mingled with purple, we know of no native tree whose foliage 



