Mavel of Peru. 333 



quist tells us, that more than two hundred men, during a long 

 siege, were kept alive by its means ; they put a little of the 

 gum in their mouths and allowed it to dissolve slowly. 



Prunus Virginiana — Wild Cherry is, like the fruit tree 

 we have just named, of but a medium size in our latitude, but 

 further to the south and west, it attains an enormous magnitude. 

 Miehaux mentions trees on the banks of the Ohio, which are 

 from eighty to one hundred feet high, and their trunks from 

 twelve to sixteen feet in circumference. The fruit is small, 

 black and rather bitter ; and the bark possesses a spicy, bitter- 

 ish taste, which is but an index to its valuable tonic properties. 

 It flowers in May or June. The wood, for which it is solely 

 valued, is well known in cabinet work, manufacture of flutes, 

 picture frames, and many other uses, for which purposes it is 

 often preferred to mahogany, which it closely resembles in 

 color and qualities. Tyas remarks, that the Wild Cherry tree, 

 by careful cultivation, will yield agreeable and excellent fruit, 

 in lieu of the dry berries which it bears naturally. So the 

 human intellect, if uncultivated, will be found full of tares and 

 weeds, but if trained carefully, it will bring forth the fruit of 

 uprightness and integrity. The Cherry tree is consequently 

 the emblem of a good education. 



Marvel of Peru. 



Mirabilis Jalap a — Four O'clock, or Marvel of Peru, 

 is in the class Pentandria, order Monogynia. Its characters 

 are : — Corol, funnel form, narrowed below ; calyx, inferior ; 

 germ, between calyx and corol ; stigma, globe shaped. Spe- 

 cific characters : — Flowers clustered, stalked ; leaves smooth. 



Lindley remarks, that people are so accustomed to identify 

 gay colors with the corolla of a flower, that it is always difficult 

 to make them believe the ovary and red striped part of the 

 Marvel of Peru to be really a calyx. It is the representative 

 of a tribe named after it, belonging to the Apetalous division 

 of Dicotyledonous plants. It has fleshy perennial roots, 



