PLUM. 309 



quantities, and finally discontinued a few days before 

 gathering." 



Dried plums are principally imported from Portugal, 

 and the neighbourhood of Marseilles in France; from 

 whence also prunes are brought: this latter variety is 

 mostly used in medicine, and though the laxative power 

 is diminished by drying, yet as they contain much of 

 their acid, they have more effect than other dried fruits. 

 They are peculiarly useful in costive habits. It is the 

 pulp of this fruit that forms the principal part of lenitive 

 electuary. 



. Plums of all kinds are considered more agreeable than 

 wholesome, but, like the pear, they lose their bad qua- 

 lities by baking. Plums in general are moistening, laxa- 

 tive, and emollient, except the bullaces and sloes, which 

 are astringent. They are cooling, quench thirst, and 

 create an appetite, and therefore agree best with hot con- 

 stitutions ; but they do not suit weak stomachs: in general, 

 however, they may not only be eaten with impunity, but 

 even with advantage, when perfectly ripe, as they tend to 

 keep the body moderately open. In years when plums 

 are very plentiful, and consequently much eaten, dysen- 

 teries generally abound : hence it appears that they ought 

 always to be eaten very moderately, and then they should 

 be quite ripe and sound. (Brookes.) The damson plum 

 produces a tolerably pleasant wine, and an exceedingly 

 agreeable kind of jelly called damson cheese. The wild 

 plum was used in medicine by the ancients, and the bark 

 of the tree is thought to be equal to the Peruvian bark 

 in cases of intermitting fevers. 



Plums should have a middling soil, neither too wet and 

 heavy, nor over light and dry : in either extreme they 

 seldom do well ; yet we have known them occasionally 

 flourish in a cold gravelly soil where apple-trees would 

 not prosper. An east or south-east aspect is better for 



