416 



PRU 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



PRU 



strong winds. The distance of placing them for espaliers 

 must be the same as against walls; as must also their'pruning 

 and management : so that whatever is said concerning each, 

 applies tu both. As Plums do not only produce their fruit 

 upon the last year's wood, but also upon cursons or spurs, 

 which come out of wood that is many years old, there is no 

 necessity of shortening the branches, in order to obtain new 

 shoots annually in every part of the tree, as has been directed 

 for Peaches, Nectarines, &c. for the more these trees are 

 pruned, the more they grow, until their strength being thus 

 exhausted, they gum and spoil. On this account, the safest 

 method to manage these trees is, to lay in there shoots hori- 

 zontally, as they are produced, at equal distances, in propor- 

 tion to the length of their leaves ; and where there is not a 

 sufficient quantity of branches to fill up the vacancies of the 

 tree, there die shoots, at the beginning- of May, must be 

 pinched in the same way as directed for those of the Peach- 

 tree. This pinching will cause them to produce some lateral 

 branches to supply those places ; and during the growing 

 season, all foreright shoots should be displaced, and such as 

 are to remain must be regularly trained to the wall or espalier, 

 which will not only render them beautiful, but also give to 

 each part of the trees an equal advantage of sun and air, 

 and thus always keep the fruit in a ductile growing state, 

 which can seldom be when they are over-shaded with shoots 

 for the first part of the season, and then suddenly exposed to 

 the air by the taking off of those branches, or training them 

 in their proper position. With this careful going over the 

 trees in the growing season, they will require little attention 

 in winter; for when the branches are shortened, the fruit is 

 cut away, and the number of shoots increased, because when- 

 ever a branch is shortened, there are commonly two or three 

 more shoots produced from the eyes immediately below the 

 cut; so that by thus unskilfully pruning, many persons crowd 

 their trees with branches, and thereby render what little fruit 

 the trees produce very small and ill tasted, which is often 

 the fact in many gardens, although the managers generally 

 think themselves quite masters of their business. Nothing is 

 more usual than to see every branch of a fruit-tree undergo 

 the excisions of the knife, however improper it may be for the 

 several sorts of fruit. It is also equally common to see these 

 trees planted at the distance of fourteen or sixteen feet, so 

 that the walls are in a few years covered with branches; and 

 then all the shoots are cut and mangled with the knife, so as 

 to appear like a stumped hedge, besides producing very little 

 fruit: the only way, therefore, says Mr. Miller, to have Plum- 

 trees in good order, is to give them room, prune them very 

 sparingly, and extend their branches at full length. 



21. Prunus Insititia; Bullace Plum Tree. Peduncles in 

 pairs; leaves lanceolate-ovate, convoluted, villose underneath; 

 branches terminated by a thorn. This is rather a humble tree, 

 whose branches usually terminate in a spine: leaves alternate, 

 on short stalks, serrated ; flowers from different buds, in pairs, 

 large, white ; fruit globular, black, very austere, but so tem- 

 pered by sweetness and roughness, as not to be unpleasant, 

 especially after it is mellowed by frost; and a conserve is pre- 

 pared of it, by mixing the pulp with thrice its weisrht of sugar. 

 The bark of the root and branches is considerably styptic. An 

 infusion of the flowers sweetened with sugar, is a mild pur- 

 gative, not improper for children. It varies with black and 

 white, or rather wax-coloured, fruit; and, as some say, with a 

 red bitter unpleasant fruit, found in the hedges of Essex and 

 Suffolk. It flowers in April, and is a native of Germany, 

 Switzerland, France, and England. -This tree is raised from 

 the stones ; but the only certain wav of continuing its varieties, 

 i* by grafting them upon any Plum or Bullace stocks. The 



stones may be sown in autumn in beds, two inches deep; keep 

 them clean, and when they are two years old, plant them in 

 rows, from two to three feet asunder, an-d train them to a 

 single stem. When of a proper height, graft or bud them 

 as other Plums; and when the heads are formed transplant 

 them where they are to remain, any time from October to 

 March, placing them eighteen or twenty feet asunder. 



22. Prunus Spinosa; Sloe Plum Tree, or Blackthorn. 

 Peduncles solitary; leaves lanceolate, smooth; brandies 

 thorny. Root creeping; stem shrubby, crooked, six or eidit 

 feet high, covered with a dark-coloured bark. Leaves stalk- 

 ed, serrated, dark-green, not appearing till the plant has 

 blossomed ; flowers solitary, white ; fruit globular, black, 

 very austere. This is not so well adapted to hedges as 

 the White Thorn, because it spreads it roots wide, and 

 encroaches upon the pasturage, but it is excellent for dead 

 fences, and to lay in covered drains. The wood being hard 

 and tough, is formed into teeth for rakes, and into walking- 

 sticks. From some effects, says Dr. Withering, which I 

 have repeatedly observed to follow a wound from the thorns, 

 I have reason to believe there is something poisonous in 

 them, particularly in autumn. The tender leaves dried, are 

 sometimes used as a substitute for tea, and is the best sub- 

 stitute that has yet been tried : had they not been coloured 

 with deleterious materials, and fraudulently sold as real 

 East Indian Tea, no bad consequences would have fol- 

 lowed ; but these practices have lately been discovered, and 

 justly punished. An infusion of an ounce of the flowers 

 in water or whey, is a safe and easy purge ; the bark dried, 

 reduced to powder, and taken in doses of two drachms, will 

 frequently cure some agues. The juice expressed from the 

 unripe fruit is a very good remedy for fluxes of the bowels ; 

 it may be reduced by a gentle boiling to a solid consistence, 

 in which state it will keep the year round, without losing 

 any of its virtues. Letters marked upon linen or woollen 

 with the juice of this fruit, will not wash out. Bruised, and 

 put into wine, it communicates a beautiful red colour, and a 

 pleasant subacid roughness. There is, in fact, too much rea- 

 son to presume, that this juice enters largely into the British 

 manufacture of Port Wine, in the same way that the leaves 

 have been recently ascertained to form so large a part of what 

 is called CJtincse Tea. The Sloe is so harshly sharp and aus- 

 tere, as not to be eatable till it is mellowed by frost: its juice 

 is extremely viscid, so that the fruit requires the addition of a 

 little water, in order to admit of expression. That obtained 

 from the unripe fruit, and inspissated to dryness by a gentle 

 heat, is the German Acacia, and has been sold in the shops 

 for the Egyptian Acacia, from which it differs in being harder, 

 heavier, darker coloured, of a sharper taste, and more espe- 

 cially in giving out its astringency to rectified spirit. This 

 fruit has been employed as a styptic ever since the time of 

 Diescorides. It has been recommended in diarrhoeas and 

 haemorrhages, and as gargles in swellings of the tonsils and 

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

 the acerb fruits, and as agreeable and useful astringents; but 

 thinks the conserve, directed by the Medical College, con- 

 tains a larger proportion of sugar than is necessary. This 

 plant is at once useful and troublesome to the husbandman. 

 I'f they be felled to the ground, the stubs i'ntercept the scythe, 

 and prevent the bite of cattle, and the thicket is soon renewed. 

 If grubbed up by the roots, every fibril left in the soil pro- 

 duces a fresh plant; so that unless great care is had to take 

 all these out, the grubbing up will increase instead of lessen- 

 ing the evil. If, however, they be cut off level with the sur- 

 face, the scythe has free sweep, and the young shoots may be 

 removed with ease and certainty. The same stroke that 



