XXVIII. THE ALMOND FAMILY. 4A7 
other intoxicating liquors which are flavored by them, their 
fatal effects; and this principle, in the leaves of some species of 
cherry, as in the goat-killing cherry of Nepaul, and the Carolina 
cherry of this country, and in the leaves of our common black 
cherry, when wilted, renders them poisonous to some quadru- 
peds. This principle, however, is diffused in so slight a pro- 
portion through the pulp of the fruit, that the cherry, the peach 
and nectarine, the plum and the apricot, are a very delicious, 
and, in moderate quantities, a perfectly wholesome food. 
The prunes, which we import from France, are the dried fruit 
of some varieties of the plum, which contain a sufficient quan- 
tity of sugar to preserve the fruit from decay, and even to yield 
a considerable quantity of brandy by distillation. The leaves 
of the sloe and bird cherry of Europe have been used to adul- 
terate the black teas of China and even to take their place. Oil 
is expressed from the kernel of the almond, and from that of 
some of the plums. ‘The bark of plants of this family contains 
an astringent principle, which renders it capable of being used 
in tanning, in dyeing yellow, and as a tonic and febrifuge in 
medicine. Allof them yield a gum not unlike gum tragacanth 
or gum arabic, which is highly nutritious. It is doubtful if it 
ever flows without injuring the tree; and, if the wound be not 
healed, the loss is at last fatal. 
Plants of this family, native and introduced, are peculiarly 
liable to the attacks of insects. Canker-worms of one or of 
several species, (Phalena and Anisdpteryr, Harris, 332—4), 
often strip them of their leaves; the tent-caterpillars, (Clisio- 
campa Americana, ib. 266—9), pitch their tents among the 
branches, and carry on their dangerous depredations; the slug- 
worms, the offspring of a fly called Selandria cérasi, (ib. 383— 
4\, reduce the leaves to skeletons and thus destroy them; the 
cherry-weevils, (Ahynche nus cérasi, ib. 68), penetrate their 
bark, cover their branches with warts, and cause them to 
decay; and borers, (Bupréstis divariedia, 1b. 48, or the still 
more pernicious Avgéria exilidsa, p. 233), gnaw galleries in 
their trunks and devour the inner bark and sap-wood. 
