ROSE TRIBE . 219 



two hundred are now known, and moi'e than tifty commonly cultivated in 

 Britain ; affording thus one of those instances of a fact familiar to the 

 botanist, of the use of culture, and the triumphs of skill and industrj^ 

 Besides the Bigarreaux, the Black Eagles, and Bleeding Hearts, the May- 

 Dukes, Arch-Dukes, Honey, and Kentish varieties, the All Saints and Weep- 

 ing Cherries, we might adduce many another which contributes to the 

 valuable supply of our tables. Many Cherry-trees, too, of great beaiity are 

 reared entirely that their snowy flowers and glowing fruits may serve as 

 ornaments to the garden-wall or shrubbery, or on account of the wood 

 furnished by their trunks and boughs. The Perfumed Cherry (Prunus 

 mahaleh) bears a profusion of beautiful flowers, dispensing far around its 

 odour, which resembles that of the Sweet Garden Clematis. Its shining 

 black fruits are so hard, that they are often pierced for rosaries. The wood 

 is also fragrant, and is used by the French in cabinet-work, especially in the 

 village of St. Lucie, near Commerey, hence it is often called Bois de Commerei/. 

 Prunus capricida is the Goatbane of Nepaul, and contains so much prussic 

 acid, that it is said to destroy goats which feed upon it. 



4. Morello Cherry (P. c&rasus). — Flowers in nearly sessile umbels; 

 leaves not drooping, inversely egg-shaped, somewhat oblong, or egg-shaped 

 and somewhat lanceolate, crenate and serrate, smooth ; calyx-tube not con- 

 tracted. This is an erect bushy shrub, about six or eight feet in height, 

 which throws out to a considerable distance a number of underground shoots. 

 The erect leaves give the plant a different aspect altogether from the Wild 

 Cherry, the whole foliage having a stronger, firmer character. The plant 

 bears white flowers in May, and the cherries are red and very acid. The 

 inner scales of the flower-bud are leafy, and the outer scales of the leaf-bud 

 are erect. It is the origin of the Morello Cherry of the garden ; it is very 

 doubtful if it is truly distinct from the preceding species. It grows in woods 

 and hedges in various parts of England. It never in a wild state attains the 

 height of the other Cherries, and rarely exceeds eight feet. 



2. Meadow-sweet, Dropwort (Spima). 



1. Meadow-sweet (»S'. ulmdria). — Herbaceous ; leaves pinnate, the 

 alternate leaflets smaller, white with down beneath, terminal leaflet very ■ 

 large, and lobed ; flowers in compound cymes. Plant perennial. The generic 

 name of Spircea, given because the flowers which compose the genus were 

 fitted for garlands, is a very old one, as Pliny called some plant Spireon, 

 garland-flower, and the name was transferred to this genus. In all pro- 

 bability, too, a plant so sweet and so common was gathered in summer-time 

 from our own meadows, in days when chaplets were in general use. " Often," 

 says a learned writer, "did Chepe, and Cornhyll, and Byshopgate, resound 

 with the waytes playing, and the quire singing Salve feste dies, as the fellow- 

 shyppe of clerkes went their procession, two and two together, each having 

 a surplice and a riche cope, and garland." Perchance this flower, in the 

 olden time, was strewed in the church for the bride to walk upon, and hung 

 over the pew where she lately sat, when death had changed her bridal suit 

 to the shroud. 



28—2 



