BLACKTHORN. 15 



also whispered that the berries are used in a mixture of 

 various ingredients that is at present supplied to wine- 

 drinkers as choice old port, while the leaves have been 

 largely used as an adulterant of tea. Teetotaller and toper 

 alike unconsciously share in the gifts of this beneficent 

 shrub, that supplies to thirsty souls the product of Oporto 

 and the cup of choice Bohea, though detractors have not 

 been wanting who have called either decoction sloe-poison. 

 The unripe fruit is sometimes pickled in salt and vinegar, 

 but this we have never ventured on ; the bare suggestion 

 is amply sufficient. Some of our readers will recall the 

 lines in Bloomfield where he speaks of the bird-boy gather- 

 ing the clustering sloes and roasting them over the fire, 

 and it is only fair to say that when the fruit has been 

 mellowed by frost it becomes much more palatable. 



The accepted botanical name of the plant is now 

 P. commnnis, but in the earlier books the Linnean name 

 is given, P. sjiinosa. The generic name is the Latin word 

 for a plum-tree. Communis needs no explanation, while 

 spinosa is the Latin adjective for prickly, and refers to the 

 sharp thorns with which the branches are armed. A 

 variety called the bullace may sometimes be met with, 

 and the garden kinds of plum probably spring from the 

 blackthorn, though these have been so long in cultivation 

 that it is impossible to speak with perfect accuracy. 

 Gerarde, in the reign of Elizabeth, refers to sixty sorts of 

 plums growing in his garden in Holborn, and other 

 references to them in our literature show them to have 

 been freely cultivated. The Shakespearian line, " I will 

 dance and eat plums at your wedding," at once occurs to 

 our minds, but even in Chaucer's time it was a familiar 

 tree, for he writes : 



