STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 67 



unlike new port, and is used to adulterate other astringent wines. 

 The apricot, which is a variety of this fruit, is highly esteemed by 

 the Chinese, and by them prepared for winter use in a manner which 

 there seems to be no reason to doubt might be employed satisfac- 

 torily among us. After removiug the stone, the fruit is dipped 

 several times in its own juice, and is then slowly dried in the sun. 

 They also take this fruit, stewing or boiling it until dissolved, add 

 honey and vinegar to it, making what they regard as a pleasant 

 drink. 



f> The cherry is a fruit of universal distribution, and justly esteemed 

 for many excellent qualities for table and medical use. In manv 

 parts of German}-, a preparation called '"Kirschensuppe" is made 

 bj' stewing cherries with water and sugar, slightly thickened with 

 potato flour, forming a dish which the rural population uses exten- 

 sively as food. A wine called Kirschenwasser is made b}' crushino- 

 the fruit and stones together, adding water to the pulp, and ferment- 

 ing. Inasmuch as it requires to make one pint of this cherry water 

 twenty pints of^pulp, it is as expensive as brandy. Fresh cherries 

 crushed and distilled, make a liquor of astringent quality, useful to 

 allay the paroxysms of whooping-cough, or to relieve the irritation 

 of ordinary colds attended by spasmodic cough. This property is 

 ■doubtless due to the presence of hydroc3'anic acid, which exists in 

 minute proportions in the seeds of various fruits, like the peach, 

 cherry, apple, almond and plum, whence is derived that slightly 

 bitter taste. This acid, in a large amount, is a powerful poison, 

 and is medicinally valuable from its propert}' of acting in minute 

 doses as a paralyzer of spasmodic action. It is not uncommon to 

 hear of cases of poisoning, where children have gorged themselves 

 with the meats extracted from cherry or peach stones ; it is due to 

 the presence of this acid. Everyone is familiar with the valuable 

 medicinal properties of the combination made by soaking black 

 cherries in rum, b}' which the astringent quality of the fruit is pre- 

 served and rendered useful. The acid varieties of the fruit make 

 excellent tarts and pies, and the sweeter kinds ma\ be subjected to 

 all the various preserving processes with which our ]S\ v\ England 

 house-keepers are familiar. 



The peach is a fruit the use of which is so well known that I cannot 

 hope to add anything to your present knowledge, except to say that 

 as an article of diet it is strongly diuretic, and at the same time 

 -somewhat laxative. 



