Pruniis.] ROSACEA. 141 



A period of cold weather, which happens commonly whilst the Sloe is blossom- 

 ing, is called by the country people here the " Blackthorn wioler." 



** Young leaves conduplicate. Peduncles in racemose or umbellate clusters. 

 Fruit without bloom. Cherry. 



f Inflorescence racemose ; racemes lateral. Padus. 



t4. P. Padus, L. Bird Cherry. Arborescent; leaves deci- 

 duous obovate-oblong cuspidato- acuminate serrated wrinkled gla- 

 brous not shining, petioles witb two glands at their summit, 

 racemes elongated erect at length drooping. Linn. Sp. PI. 677. 

 Sm. E. Fl. ii. 354. Br. Fl. 116. Bab. Man. 90. Loud. Arh. 

 Brit. ii. 709, and vi. 99, t. 30, F. E. B. xx. t. 1383. Hoppe, 

 Ect. Plant. Ratisb. cent. 4, t. 309. Guimp. und Hayne, Abhild. 

 der Deutsch. Holtzart. i. 77, t. 59. 



In woods and thickets ; very rare, 'and doubtless introduced. Fl. May. Fr. 

 August. Ij . 



/3. Leaves evenly and finely serrate, racemes more upright. P. Pad. /3. rubra, 

 Willd. Sp. PI. 985. P. rubra. Idem, Berlin. Baumz. 237, t. iv. fig. 2 (folium). 



E. Med. — In a thicket below the Cowleaze, St. John's, sparingly, as a slender 

 shrub, of a few feet in height, probably conveyed thither by birds from gardens at 

 Hyde, in which it is frequent. On the wooded steep below Cook's Castle, in con- 

 siderable plenty, both as a bush and tree, but I suspect not truly wild there. 



A handsome low tree or large straggling shrub, seldom exceeding 10 or 20 

 feet in the wild state, but sometimes attaining to double that height in gardens 

 and plantations. Brandies alternate, long, slender, tough and flexile, partly pen- 

 dulous, covered with a dark, reddish brown, smooth, bitter-tasting barh. Leaves 

 deciduous, scattered, or 2 or 3 together, when fully grown, or after the flowers are 

 past, from about 2J to 4 inches long, and from about 1 to 2^ inches wide, obovato- 

 oblong or obovato-elliptical, acute or more commonly cuspidato-acuminate, more 

 or less cuneately attenuated below, rounded, or subcordate and mostly unequal at 

 base, sharply, unequally and doubly (or as in our variety |S. finely, eveuly and 

 simply) serrate, the serratures pointing forward, incurved, glanduloso-mucronu- 

 late ; bright green but not shining above, wrinkled, and, with the exceplion of a 

 slight hairiness in the axils of the veins beneath, glabrous. Petioles about 6 — 9 

 lines in length, usually with a pair of small glands just at their junction with the 

 leaf, one or both of which are occasionally though rarely wanting. Stipules pale, 

 linear, deciduous. Flowers numerous, small, white, soon falling, in simple, naked, 

 or slightly leafy lateral racemes, of 3 or 4 inches in length, from the wood of the 

 second year, and which are, as Gaudin remarks, more or less erect, afterwards 

 drooping. Pedicels nearly erect, scarcely half an inch long, glabrous, at length 

 patent, each from the axil of an oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, elongated, concavo- 

 canaliculate, membranaceous and pubescent, very early caducous bract (Bertolini). 

 Calyx shallow, hairy and glandular within. Sepals broad, rounded and obtuse, 

 fringed with white pellucid hairs or glands. Petals twice or thrice the length of 

 the calyx, irregularly jagged or erose along their margin, obovalo-orbicular, with 

 scarcely any claws. Stamens in two rows, the inner series placed irregularly. 

 Style straight ; stigma large, flat, lobed and roundish. Drupes the size of peas, 

 globose, black and shining (sometimes, it is reported, red), juicy, bilter and 

 austere; nucleus subglobose, a little pointed at each end, rough with broad, fur- 

 rowed, tubercular ridj^es ; the kernel white and bitter. 



The Bird Cherry tree, though common in hedges and high rocky woods in 

 many of the northern and midland counties of England, is very rare in the south- 

 ern, and can scarcely be regarded as a native of the Isle of Wight, where how- 

 ever it is now quite naturalised in the few stations above recorded. It is very fre- 

 quently seen in the gardens at Ryde, to which it is a great though transitory 



