DRUPACEiE. 287 



vered with a bloom. Stone more or less compressed, acute, smooth, the margins some- 

 what grooved. 



This genus consists of trees and shrubs peculiar to cold and temperate 

 climates, having simple leaves, usually glandular at base. The fruit is eat- 

 able, the bark yields gum, and the leaves, bark, and kernel of the fruit con- 

 tain hydrocyanic acid. As formerly instituted by Linnoeus, Prunus com- 

 prised many species which have since been very properly erected into separate 

 genera. 



P. domestica, Linn. — Flowers almost solitary. Leaves lanceolate-ovate, convolute. 

 Branches not spinous. 



Linn., Sp. PI. 680 ; Woodville, iii. 187 ; Flore, Med. v. 280. 

 Common Names. — Plum Tree ; Green Gage, &c. 

 Fareign Names. — Prunier, Fr. ; Susina, It. 



Description. — The cultivated plum tree presents such an immense number of varieties, 

 that it is impossible to give a description that is applicable to all, except that it is a small 

 tree with white flowers. De Candolle, in his Prodromus, admits 9 varieties ; but Don, in 

 his System of Gardening, enumerates 270, which is far from including all that are known. 

 Although now found in many parts of Europe, it is supposed to have been originally 

 brought from Asia Minor : it was not known to the Romans until the time of Pliny ; and 

 it is thought by Tenore that the Plum noticed by Theophrastus and Dioscorides was not 

 this species, but the P. cocumiglia, a native of some parts of Italy. 



The only parts used in medicine are the dried fruits, well known under 

 the name of Prunes. These are principally prepared in the south of France, 

 and are imported from Bordeaux and Marseilles. They are usually em- 

 ployed as a dessert ; but are also used as a laxative, either raw or stewed, 

 and alone, or combined with a decoction of senna, and are added to some offi- 

 cinal preparations to improve their flavour or to add to their effects. 



Several other species have been used in medicine. The bark of P. spi- 

 nosa is stated to be eminently febrifuge, and, according to some authors, is 

 fully equal in this respect to' Cinchona. It is given in powder, in doses of 

 half a drachm to two drachms (Willemet, Mat. Med. Indig. 70). It closely 

 resembles in its effects the P. cocumiglia, spoken of above, and which, ac- 

 cording to Tenore (Mem. sul Pruno cocumiglio), is much employed in Ca- 

 labria in intermittent fevers. 



Cerasfs. — Jussieu. 



Drupe globose, fleshy, destitute of bloom. Stone mostly globose, smooth. 



This genus was originally instituted by Tournefort, but was included in 

 Prunus by Linnseus, again separated by Jussieu, and now recognised as dis- 

 tinct by almost all botanists. It consists of trees and shrubs, which may be 

 divided into several natural groups or sections, founded on the mode of flow- 

 ering and the persistence or non-persistence of the leaves. One of these 

 (Eucerasus, Torrey and Gray) contains those species in which the flowers 

 spring from lateral, leafless buds, appearing before or with the leaves, the 

 pedicels being umbellate-fascicled or corymbose. This group contains the 

 cultivated varieties, so well known as Cherries, which are supposed to be de- 

 rived from several distinct wild species. As, however, they are of little im- 

 portance in a medicinal point of view, they require no further notice. 



Section 2. Padus. — Flowers in racemes, terminating leafy branches, appearing after 

 the evolution of the leaves. Leaves deciduous. 



