CLASS XII. ORDER I.) PRUNUS. G83 



P. spinosa, are also varieties of it ; l>ut of all these varieties the most 

 generally cultivated ones are apricot plums, the gages, of svhich there 

 are both green and yellosv, (the magnum bonum) or egg plums, 

 the cherry, the imperial, the Saint Catherine, and numerous varieties 

 of damsons. They are much esteemed as a Iruit, and when quite ripe 

 are not unwholesome; hut if used, as they so commonly are, before 

 being ripe, they are productive of more dyspepsia than almost any 

 other fruit, and the excuse generally made of their being more 

 wholesome when cooked, than as they are commonly sold in the 

 markets half ripe, is by no means true. They are dried and sent from 

 various parts of the Continent, and sold in the shops under the name 

 of French plums, prunes. Sec; boiled with sugar they form an excel- 

 lent preserve, and the pulp of the damsons boiled with sugar, and 

 formed into cakes, or as it is generally called cheese, is found a useful 

 and pleasant remedy in allaying the irritation of a tickling cough or 

 sore throat, either when dissolved slowly in the mouth, or mixed with 

 water into a drink, and is equally agreeable and useful to feverish 

 patients. The cultivation of the plum is not different to that of other 

 fruit trees ; it flourishes best in a high open situation. They are 

 generally grafted or budded on damson stocks. 



2. P. insiti'tia, Linn. (Fig. 780.) Wild Bullace Tree. Flowers in 

 pairs ; peduncles pubescent ; branches downy, terminating in a spine ; 

 leaves ovate lanceolate, downy beneath ; fruit globose. 



English Botany, t. 841, — English Flora, vol. ii. p. 356. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 195. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 90. 



A small spreading tree, with irregular round branches, downy 

 towards the ends, and mostly terminating in a sharp straight spine. 

 Leaves ovate or ovate lanceolate, downy beneath, especially when 

 young, the margins serrated, curled inwards in the bud, and enveloped 

 in brown entire scales, the inner ones greenish and fringed. Flowers 

 in pairs, on short peduncles, clothed with pubescence. Calyx five 

 cleft. Petals pure white, roundish. Fruit globose, dark purple violet, 

 red, yellow and spotted, covered with a fine powdery bloom. 



Habitat. — Woods and hedges. 



Tree ; flowering in April and May. 



Of this species there are several varieties which are known by the 

 colour of the fruit, as the black, the white, and the waxen. They have 

 a rough acid austere taste, far from pleasant; but when boiled with an 

 abundance of sugar, they are esteemed for making tarts, &c. The 

 flowers, both of this and the following species, are said to be mildly 

 laxative, and the bark contains a quantity of astringent matter. 



3. P. spino^sa, Linn. (Fig. 781.) Black Thorn, or Sloe. Flowers 

 mostly solitary ; peduncles smooth ; branches downy, terminating in a 

 spine; leaves elliptic, or broadly lanceolate, downy beneath; fruit 

 globose, erect. 



