ROSACER. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 11 
The wood of Prunus is close-grained, solid, and durable, and is usually light brown, more or less 
tinged with red. The most valuable timber tree of the genus is the North American Prunus serotina. 
The wood of, Prunus domestica and of Prunus Aviwm is much esteemed in Europe by makers of 
furniture and musical instruments, and by turners.1 The wood of Prunus Mahaleb is hard, dark- 
colored, and fragrant; known in France as bois de St. Lucie, it is valued by cabinet-makers, and is 
employed in the manufacture of tobacco pipes and of many small articles.’ The spiny stems of Prunus 
spinosa are used for canes, and for the handles of agricultural implements and other tools. In India 
the wood of the Peach-tree is utilized in building, and that of the Apricot for many domestic purposes ; * 
and in Japan the wood of Prunus Pseudo-Cerasus® and of Prunus Mume for engraving and for the 
blocks used in printing cloth and wall-paper.® 
Prunus contains many plants valued in gardens for the beauty of their flowers and foliage. Vari- 
ous forms of the Cherry, the Peach, and the Plum, with double flowers, or of abnormal habit, have long 
been cultivated. The parks and gardens of temperate Europe are enlivened by the evergreen foliage 
of Prunus Laurocerasus, the so-called English Laurel, a native of the Orient, and of Prunus Lusi- 
tanica,’ the Portugal Laurel, which are replaced in those of the southern part of the United States 
by Prunus Caroliniana ; in Japan Prunus Mume and Prunus Pseudo-Cerasus hold the first place 
among flowering plants in the affections of the people, and no Japanese home is without them. The 
first, when its leafless branches are covered with white or red flowers, announces the arrival of spring 
and a time of rejoicing, while the blossoms of the second invite the people to another festival.* 
Numerous insects prey upon the different species of Prunus, which are also subject to serious 
fungal diseases.” 
makes a thick mucilage, the insoluble portion, to which the name 
It is brittle, with an 
insipid, sweet, or astringent flavor, and is at first liquid and color- 
of Cerisin is given, merely swelling in water. 
less, but with exposure to the air hardens and grows darker; in 
commerce Cherry-gum appears in the form of large, irregular 
shaped pieces, and is lustrous and transparent, varying in color from 
pale yellow to brown, that produced by the Cherry-tree being of a 
darker color than the gum of the Plum-tree. 
transparent, odorless, and tasteless (Henry Watts, Dictionary of 
Chemistry. — Spons, Encyclopedia of the Industrial Arts, Manufac- 
tures, and Raw Commercial Products, ii. 1638.—Guibourt, Hist. 
Drog. ed. 7, iii. 318). 
1 Loudon, Arb. Brit. ii. 698.— Matthieu, FU. Forestitre, ed. 3, 
125, 129. 
2 Loudon, J. c. 708.— Brandis, Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 195.— Mat- 
thieu, J. c. 127. 
8 The common Blackthorn canes of northern Europe are cut 
from the stems of Prunus spinosa. — Loudon, 1. c. 686. — Matthieu, 
1. c. 130. 
4 Brandis, J. c. 191. 
5 Lindley, Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. vi. 90. 
6 Rein, Japan nach Reisen und Studien im Auftrage der Kéniglich 
Preussischen Regierung, 297. 
7 Linneus, Spec. 473. — Koch, Dendr. i. 124. 
Cerasus Lusitanica, Loiseleur, Nouveau Duhamel, v. 5.— Lowe, 
Fi. Mad. 236. 
8 Rein, l. c. 319. —Conder, The Flowers of Japan and the Art of 
Floral Arrangement. 
® The North American species of Prunus furnish food to a large 
number of insects, some of which have become injurious to the cul- 
tivated fruit-trees of this genus. The original food-plant of the 
Peach-tree Borer (Ageria exitiosa, Say) is believed to have been 
Prunus serotina, which is sometimes attacked by this insect ; and a 
number of beetles are known as borers in the wood of the different 
Cerisin is colorless, 
species. Dicerca divaricata (Say) attacks the trunks of the Wild 
Cherry, and the Flat-headed Apple-tree Borer (Chrysobothris femo- 
rata, Fabricius) those of the Wild Plum ; and another borer, Cyrto- 
phorus verrucosus, Olivier, is found in the wood of Prunus serotina, 
and of Prunus Pennsylvanica. 
The number of insects which prey upon the foliage of Prunus is 
very large. Packard (5th Rep. U.S. Entomolog. Comm. 1886-1890) 
records sixty-eight species as feeding on the Wild Plums and the 
Wild Cherries of eastern America; but this list probably repre- 
sents only a small proportion of the insects which feed on the foli- 
age of trees of this genus in North America, as little is known of 
The Tent-cat- 
‘ly partial to the native Plums 
those that attack the western and southern species, 
pa), are p 
and Cherries, and in those parts of the country where these trees 
1 
erpillars (Clisi 
are plentiful, they are considered a menace to neighboring orchards 
by their harboring these pests. The Canker-worms and the Fall 
Web-worms also feed on the trees of this genus. Larve of Pla- 
tysamia Cecropia (Linnzus) and other large moths of the Silk-worm 
family are found on the Plum and the Cherry ; and the caterpil- 
lars of Sphinx drupiferarum, Abbot & Smith, occasionally defoliate 
their branches (Saunders, Insects Injurious to Fruits, 162). ‘The 
leaves also are affected by several species of leaf-moths. 
The Cherry-slug (Selandia Cerasi, Peck) and one or two other 
Saw-flies feed on the Wild Cherry. A small Curculio (Anthono- 
mus quadrigibbus, Say) is often abundant in the seeds of Prunus 
serotina. The fruit of the Wild Plum is destroyed by the Plum- 
cureulio (Conotrachelus Nenuphar, [Herbst]), whose ravages seri- 
ously interfere with the cultivation in the United States of the 
European and native plums. 
The Plum-tree has been found to be the food-plant of the Hop- 
aphis (Phorodon Humuli, Schrank) during certain periods of the 
year, and the destruction of Plum-trees in the vicinity of Hop-fields 
is recommended by C. V. Riley (Insect Life, i. 183). 
10 The number of described species of fungi which infest arbores- 
