70 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



they are impaled upon osier-sticks, and again exposed to 

 the sun. Then comes the removal of the stones, pressure 

 into a round form, and deposit in the boxes. The manu- 

 facture, of these dainty receptacles, the pretty coloured 

 frills and ornamental lace edgings, coloured pictures for 

 the lids almost always superadded, has become quite an 

 important branch of art-work, one welcome invention 

 almost always suggesting another, which latter, as in the 

 present instance, contributes immensely to the pleasing 

 appearance of the commodity dealt with. 



Prunes are the fruit of a kind of plum called Juliana, 

 and by the French Prunier de St. Julien. These are 

 grown largely in the valley of the Loire, especially about 

 Bourgueil, a small town between Tours and Angers. 

 They are prepared by simple drying, chiefly in the sun- 

 shine, and are then packed for market. The import 

 into this country, including a few of inferior quality 

 received from Germany, is about four hundred tons 

 annually. The value of French plums, and of prunes, 

 the latter when stewed and sweetened, is well known. 

 They are much more wholesome than the fresh fruit, 

 nutritious and demulcent. They are also esteemed in 

 medicine, especially as furnishing an ingredient of laxa- 

 tive confections. 



In England the most valuable of all the innumerable 

 varieties of the plum is unquestionably the damson. 

 Very hardy, easily cultivated, and usually yielding an 

 abundant crop, it well deserves its accustomed place 

 in cottage gardens and the hedges about farmhouses. 



