446 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



from the Plum, like the liquors extracted from the various kinds of 

 Cherries, under the names of ratafia and kirsch. Cherry syrup and 

 paste, the fruits stewed, or preserved in sugar or spirit, are as well 

 known as the refreshing qualities of the fresh acidulous or sweet 

 fruits of the different varieties. The flesh of Cerams Mahaleb^ is 

 austere and bitter, but its sweet perfumed seeds, formerly used in 

 medicine, are still sold for perfumery. Apricots and Peaches are 

 eaten fresh, or prepared in various ways; the flesh is considered 

 depurative. Of the Sweet-almond, the only part eaten is the 

 embryo, fresh or dried ; that of the Bitter-almond is used for 

 domestic purposes, in perfumery, and as we have seen, in medicine. 

 The edible part of the fruit of the Brambles, is the mesocarp of the 

 numerous drupels collected on one common receptacle ; this is hard 

 and whitish, and easily separates from the succulent drupes : their 

 pulp is acidulous in B. Chamcemorus" (Cloudberry) and odoratus^ which 

 are eaten in Siberia, and the North of America, as in other sub-arctic 

 regions. Blackberries {Mure des haies, lit., Hedge Mulberry) are the 

 fruit of R. fridicosus, casius [strictly the Dewberry], &c,, sweet and 

 sub-acid, and poor in astringent matter, which is on the contrary 

 abundant in the leaves ; Blackberry syrup is however sometimes 

 prescribed in slight inflammations. The Easpberry {B. idaus^ — Fr., 

 Framboisier) is the Bubus most in use for its leaves as well as its 

 fruits, but especially the latter, which have a sweet acidulous per- 

 fumed taste. They are very refreshing, and from them are obtained 

 the juice, often administered in fever, and a syrup, alcoholate, and the 

 well known aromatic raspberry vinegar. Though the true fruits of 

 the Strawberry are not achenes, but drupes with thin mesocarps, the 

 edible portion of these plants is the sweet perfumed pulpy hyper- 

 trophied receptacle ; it is used for its refreshing properties, and the 

 ancients valued it as one of the best blood-purifiers known. The 

 Chri/sobalane(jB have also often good fruits ; and in the first place 

 comes Chrysobalanus Icaco Z./ whose fruit, vulgarly known as the 

 Cocoa-plum {Prune-coton, P. des anses), is eaten all over tropical Africa 



' Mill., Diet., n. 4.— DC, Fl. Fr., iv. 480; ^ j^,^ Spec.,lQl.—J)C.,P)-odr.,n.^\.—GviJi., 



Prodr., ii. 539, n. 25. — Pruntts Mahaleb L., op. cit., 280. — Rosentu., op. cit., 960. 



Spec, 678.— GuiB., op. cit., 292 {^Bois de Sainte- * L., Spec, 70G. — DC, Prodr., n. 22.— GuiB,, 



Lucie). op. cit., 279. — R. frambaesianus Lamk., Fl. Fr., 



^ L., Spec, 708.— DC, Prodr., n. 87.— GuiB., iii. 135. 



op. cit., 280. — Morus norvegica Tilland., * Spec. 513. — DC, Prodr., ii. 525, n. 1. — C. 



Ab<ens., 47. pellocarpus MiQ., Prim. Fl. Fsseq., 193. — C. 



