58 FAMILIAR TREES 



height. Its reddish-brown twigs have cork-warts 

 somewhat elongated transversely, and rather large, 

 pointed buds : its leaves are large, smooth, elliptical, 

 finely and sharply toothed, somewhat obliquely heart- 

 shaped at the base, and tapering to a slender point, 

 and they have generally two glands on the leaf-stalk 

 near its junction with the blade. Such glands, which 

 exude honey, are not uncommon among the Brupa'cecB. 

 The chief distinctive mark of the species is, however 

 the arrangement of the blossoms, which is what is 

 technically known as a "raceme" — i.e. the flowers, 

 which are numerous, spring singly on short stalklets 

 from an elongated pendulous axis, as in the Laburnum 

 -r-an arrangement altogether different, as we shall see, 

 from that in the other two forms, and one which 

 brings this species near to the Cherry-laurels. These 

 racemes are at first erect, but after polhnation they 

 hang downwards. The fruit is small, roundish, 

 black, and harshly bitter in taste, and encloses a 

 round wrinkled stone. 



The Gean (P, Avium L.) (in speaking of which it 

 should, perhaps, be noted that there has in past times 

 been an unfortunate confusion of the English and 

 Latin forms of the name. Bird Cherry and Prunus 

 Avium L., which ought to, but do not, belong to the 

 same species) is a tree from twenty to thirty feet 

 or more in height, and sometimes more than nine 

 inches in diameter. It grows in dry, rocky woods, 

 and yields a beautiful red timber, fine-grained, and 

 tough enough for tool-handles, but once valued far 

 more than at present by cabinet-makers, especially on 

 the Continent. The leaves are drooping, and long- 



