THE COCOA PLUM FAMILY. 



415 



but has a larger fruit; there is a white variety sold as 

 damsons. 



Gean, or Wild Cherry (Prunus Avium). A tree, native of 

 this country, sometimes exceeding 30 feet in height. The 

 wood is valued for making furniture. In Germany a spirit 

 called Kirschwasser is distilled from it. 



Cerasus vulgaris is a smaller tree, native of this country. 

 It is believed that from this and the preceding, all the fine 

 sorts of cherries have originated. 



Common Cherry Laurel (Prunus Lauro-cerasus). This well- 

 known evergreen shrub is a native of Western temperate 

 Asia, and has been known in this coimtry for more than two 

 hundred years. Its fruit and leaves are highly poisonous, 

 containing much prussic acid, and fatal consequences have 

 occurred through the use of its leaves. The leaves also yield 

 a volatile oil that forms the basis of cherry-laurel water, and 

 is used for destroying flies 5 it is a deadly poison. 



The Cocoa Plum Family. 



(CHRTSOBALANACEiE.) 



Trees or shrubs, having alternate simple leaves with 

 stipules, and lateral parallel veins. Flowers in panicles, 

 racemes, or umbels. Fruit a drupe. 



Fifty or more species constitute this family. They are 

 chiefly natives of tropical Africa and America. 



Cocoa Plum (^Chrysohalanus Icaco). A small tree, native 

 of Jamaica and other West India Islands, producing a small 

 fruit which is made into a preserve, and forms an article of 

 trade. 



Gingerbread Plum {Parinarium macrophyllum). A small 

 tree, native of Western tropical Africa, having stiff oblong 

 leaves, whitish on the under side, and strongly veined. It 

 produces a fruit the size of a large plum. P. excelsum^ the 

 Eough-skin, or Grey Plum, as also the Pigeon Plum, Chry- 

 sohalanus ellipticus^ and the Yellow Pigeon Plum, C. luteuSj 

 are abundant in the markets of Sierra Leone. 



