CERASUS. 



476. C. capricida Wall. cat. No. 718. Prunus undulata 

 Don. prodr. 239 C. undulata DC. prodr. ii. 540. Hima- 

 laya Mountains. 



Leaves ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, finely glandular-serrate, decidu- 

 ous, thin, quite smooth on each side, light green and shining beneath ; 

 petioles without glands. Racemes very finely downy, axillary, but 

 little longer than the leaves. Flowers small, white. Segments of 

 calyx obtuse. So poisonous as to kill goats in Nepal. 



PRUNUS. 



Calyx inferior, bell-shaped, deciduous, with 5 obtuse concave 

 segments. Petals 5, roundish, concave, spreading, larger than 

 the segments of the calyx, their short claws proceeding from its 

 rim. Filaments 20-30, awl-shaped, nearly as long as the co- 

 rolla, from the rim of the calyx within the petals. Anthers 

 short, of 2 round lobes. Ovary superior, roundish ; style thread- 

 shaped, terminal, the length of the stamens ; stigma orbicular, 

 peltate. Drupe roundish or elliptical. Nut very hard, some- 

 what compressed, of 1 cell and 2 more or less distinct sutures 

 with an intermediate furrow. Leaves rolled up when young. 



477. P. Cocumilia Tenore prodr. suppl. ii. 67. DC. prodr. 

 ji. 538. Att. r. ist. incoragg. iv. 444. c. ic. fl. neap. t. 144. 

 Woods of the lower mountains of Calabria. 



Peduncles short, in pairs. Leaves elliptical obovate acuminate at 

 each end, smooth, crenulate ; crenatures and peduncles covered with 

 deciduous glands. Fruit ovate-oblong, mucronulate, austere. The 

 bark of this plant, which seems to be nothing more than a wild state of 

 our domestic Plum, is spoken of in the highest terms as a remedy for 

 the intermittent fevers of Calabria. In Neapolitan hospitals it has been 

 found superior to Cinchona. 



478. P. spinosa Linn.sp.pl 681. Eng. Bot. t. 842. Woodv. 

 t. 84. DC. prodr. ii. 532. Smith Eng. Fl. ii, 357. Com- 

 mon in the woods and hedges of all Europe. (Sloe.) 



A rigid bushy shrub, with sharp spinous branches ; the bark blackish, 

 a little glaucous and polished. Leaves scarcely an inch long ; the 

 earlier ones obovate ; all smooth, except when very young. Flowers 

 pure white, copious, earlier than the leaves, solitary, on short simple 

 stalks, each from a small bud at the bases of the leaf-buds. Calyx 

 spreading. Petals with scarcely any claws. Fruit globular, black, 

 rather larger than a black currant, acid, astringent, and very austere, 

 not eatable except when baked or boiled with a large proportion of 

 sugar. The juice, inspissated over a slow fire, is a substitute for 

 Catechu. In some form or other, this juice is said to be used in fac- 

 titious or adulterated Port wine. The leaves also are reckoned among 

 the adulterations of tea in England. They possess, in fact, a portion 

 of that peculiar aromatic flavour which exists in Spiraea Ulmaria, the 

 American Gualtheria, and some other plants, and which resembles the 

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