498 



AMYGDALACE&. III. ARMENIACA. IV. PRUNVS. 



Prunus Armeniaca nigra, Desf. cat. ed. 2. p. 206. In a spe- 

 cimen that flowered in the Botanical Garden at Geneva, the 

 calyx was purple and 6-lobed, the petals 6 in number, and the 

 stamens 24. This species is called Abricot noir in French gar- 

 dens, the fruit black and eatable. It is supposed to be a native 

 of the Levant. The flowers are white. 



Thick-fruited Apricot. Fl. Apr. Clt. 1800. Tr. 10 to 1.5 ft. 



3 A. PERSICIFOLIA (Lois, in Duham. ed. nov. 5. p. 172. t. 

 552. f. 1.) leaves ovate, short, or lanceolate, lobulate ; petioles 

 glandular; flowers pedicellate. f? . H. Native country un- 

 known. Flesh of fruit variegated with yellow and red, eatable. 

 Called in France Abricot noir a feuilles de jiecher, or pcacli- 

 leaved black apricot. Corolla white. 



Peach-leaved Apricot. Fl. Mar. April. Clt. 1800. Tree 

 10 to 15 feet. 



4 A. SIBI'RICA (Pers. ench. 2. p. 36.) leaves ovate, acumin- 

 ated ; petiole glandless. fj . H. Native of the ulterior moun- 

 tains of Siberia. Amm. ruth. 272. t. 29. Prunus Sibirica, Lin. 

 spec. p. 679. Pall. ross. 1. p. 15. t. 8. This tree is much like 

 the common apricot in appearance, but smaller in all its parts ; 

 the petioles are longer and destitute of any gland ; the leaves 

 are of the form of those of the birch tree ; the fruit is small, 

 juiceless, and sour or acid, and contains a bitter kernel. In 

 transalpine Dauria, the north side of the mountains in May 

 are clothed with the purple flowers of Rhododendron Dau- 

 ricum and the south side with the rose-coloured blossoms of 

 this tree. 



Siberian Apricot. Fl. Apr. May. Clt. 1788. Sh. 4 to 6 ft. 



5 A. BRIGANTI'ACA (Pers. ench. 2. p. 36.) leaves somewhat 

 cordate, acuminated, sharply toothed ; the teeth numerous, and 

 lapping over each other ; flowers glomerate, almost sessile. 



Jj . H. Native of Dauphiny, near (Brigantia) BriaiKjon. Prunus 

 Brigantiaca, Vill. dauph. 3. p. 535. Lois, in Duham. ed. nov. 5. 

 t. 59. Flowers white or pink. From the seeds of this tree a 

 fixed oil, commonly called huile de marmote is obtained by ex- 

 pression. It is used instead of olive or almond oil. Perhaps 

 sufficiently distinct from A. Sibirica. 



Briancon Apricot. Fl. Mar. April. Clt. 1819. Sh. 6 to 8 ft. 



Cult. The species are all increased by budding on the same 

 kind of stocks recommended for the common apricot. They 

 grow in any kind of soil, and are very ornamental for shrub- 

 beries in spring. 



IV. PRU'NUS (said to be a word of Asiatic origin, the 

 wild plant, according to Galen, being called TT/TOVJUVOC, in Asia, 

 from the Greek irpouvj), which occurs in Theophrastus). Tourn. 

 inst. t. 398. Juss. gen. 341. D. C. fl. fr. 4. p. 483. prod. 2. 

 p. 532. Prunophora, Neck, elem.no. 719. Prunus, species of 

 Lin. and others. 



LIN. SYST. Icosdndria, Monogynia, Drupe ovate, or ob- 

 long, fleshy, quite glabrous, covered with a kind of glaucous 

 bloom, containing a compressed nut or putamen, which is acute 

 at both ends, and a little furrowed on the margin, the rest 

 smooth. Trees or shrubs. Leaves convolute when young. Flowers 

 usually disposed in umbellate fascicles, solitary on the pedicels, 

 rising either after or before the leaves. 



1 P. SPINOSA (Lin. spec. 681.) branches spinose ; peduncles 

 solitary ; calyx campanulate, with obtuse lobes, which are longer 

 than the tube ; leaves obovate-elliptic, or ovate, smooth except 

 when young, sharply and doubly serrated ; fruit globose. T? . H. 

 Native of Europe and America; plentiful in Britain, in hedges 

 and thickets. Vahl. fl. dan. t. 926. Smith, engl. bot. 842. 

 Woodv. med. bot. t. 84. Blackw. icon. t. 494. P. sylvestris, 

 Bauh.pin.444. Sii-o^tae, Theophrastus. Spinus, Virgil. Flowers 

 white, rising before or with the leaves. Fruit sour or acid, 

 black, roundish, covered with bluish bloom. The black thorn 



is not so good as the white thorn for hedges, because it spreads 

 its roots wide and encroaches upon the pastures ; but it is ex- 

 cellent for dead fences, and to lay in covered drains. The fruit, 

 when ripe, makes an excellent preserve ; unripe the inspissated 

 juice forms the German acacia, and affords an almost indelible 

 ink, used to mark linens. It is used in home-made wines, to 

 communicate the colour and roughness of red port. The tender 

 leaves, dried, are sometimes used as a substitute for tea, and is 

 the best substitute that has been yet tried, and it is said they 

 have been used in mixing with the Chinese tea. Knight and 

 others consider the sloe as the parent of the bullace plum (P. 

 insititia) and the varieties of the common plum (P. domtitica), 

 Sloes have been employed as a styptic medicine from the time 

 of Dioscorides. They have been recommended in diarrhoeas 

 and haemorrhages, and as gargles in the swellings of the tonsils 

 and uvula. Dr. Cullen considers them as the most powerful of 

 acerb fruits, and as agreeable and useful astringents. The 

 flowers with their calyxes, are moderately purgative : the dose 

 is an ounce infused in water. As a shrubbery plant the sloe is 

 most ornamental, blossoming before all others of the Prunus 

 tribe. 



Var. a, vulgaris (Ser. mss. in D. C. prod. 2. p. 532.) leaves 

 obovate-elliptic; fruit dark purple. P. spinosa, Lois, in Duham. 

 ed. nov. 5. p. 185. t. 54. f. 1. There is a variegated-leaved 

 kind of this. 



Var. /3, microcarpa (Wallr. exsic. cent. 1. no. 45.) leaves 

 elliptic, narrow, bluntish ; fruit smaller. 



Var. y, macrocdrjia (Wallr. exsic. cent. 1. no. 45.) leaves 

 obovate, bluntish ; fruit large, dark purple. Native of Ger- 

 many. Perhaps this is P. domestica, var. f, Juliana. 



Var. c, ovata (Ser. mss. in D. C. prod. 2. p. 532.) leaves 

 ovate-roundish. Blackw. herb. t. 494. 



Thorny Plum, Black-thorn, or Sloe. Fl. Mar. Apr. Brit. 

 Shrub 10 to 15 feet. 



2 P. INSITI'TIA (Lin. spec. 680.) branches spiny at the apex ; 

 peduncles twin ; leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate, convolute, 

 downy beneath ; fruit roundish. Jj . H. Native of Germany 

 and France, as well as of Britain, in hedges. Smith, engl. bot. 

 841. Duham. arb. 2. t. 41. Black Bullace tree, Mill. diet, 

 no. 31. The stipulas are fringed. The flowers are white. 

 The fruit is globular, black, or white, of an acid taste, but so 

 tempered by sweetness and roughness as not to be unpleasant, 

 especially after it is mellowed by frost, A conserve is prepared 

 by mixing its pulp with thrice its weight of sugar. The bark 

 of the roots and branches is considerably styptic. An infusion 

 of the flowers, sweetened with sugar, is a mild cathartic. It 

 varies with black and white or wax-coloured fruit. 



Grafted or Bullace-plum. Fl. Mar. Apr. Brit. Sh. 10 to 15 ft. 



3 P. CA'NDICANS (Balb. cat. taur. 1813. p. 62.) peduncles 

 short, twin, or tern, and are as well as the branches pubescent ; 

 leaves broadly ovate, white beneath ; stipulas very narrow, 

 deeply toothed, length of petioles ; calyx campanulate. t? . H. 

 Native country unknown. Willd. enum. suppl. p. 32. Lindl. bot. 

 reg. 1135. Flowers white. 



White-leaved Plum. Fl. Apr. Clt. 1820. Shrub 4 to 6 ft. 



4 P. COCOMI'LIA (Tenore, prod, suppl. 2. p. 67. cat. 1819. 

 p. 46.) peduncles short, twin ; leaves obovate, glabrous on both 

 surfaces, crenulated, with the crenatures glandular ; drupe ovate- 

 oblong, mucronulate. 1? . H. Native of Calabria, in hedges. 

 Flowers white. Fruit yellow, bitter, or sour. The bark of 

 this shrub is febrifugal, and is spoken very highly of by Tenore : 

 it is a specific for the cure of the dangerous fevers of Calabria, 

 where it grows. 



Cocomilia or Calabrian Plum. Fl. April. Clt. 1824. Sh. 

 2 to 3 feet. 



5 P. TOMENTOSA (Thunb. fl. jap. 203.) branches unarmed ; 



