250 



THE BLACKTHORN. 



Brignoles * are the dried fruit of a tree which 

 grows principally near the town of the same name 

 in Provence, They are peeled when fresh, and 

 dried in the sun. When the moisture which they 

 contained is entirely evaporated, the stones are 

 taken out by hand, and the plums are pressed 

 together in such a manner as to make them quite 

 round. They are afterwards packed into small 

 wooden boxes, ornamented with cut paper, and 

 form an important article of revenue to the 

 growers. 



The Damascene, or Damson, takes its name 

 from Damascus, where it grows in great quanti- 

 ties, and from w^hence it was brought into Italy 

 about 114 B. c. It is used principally for pre- 

 serves, and for making a kind of jelly called 



Damson cheese." 



Many kinds of plum were known to the Greeks 

 and Romans ; and Gerard had in his garden at 

 Holborn, in 1597, ^^three-score sorts, all strange 

 and rare." 



For a fuller description of the garden-plums, 

 I must refer my readers to works treating on 

 horticulture. 



The insects which prove most injurious to the 

 Blackthorn and its varieties are, the brown and 

 yellow-tailed moths, already noticed, and the 

 following, a brief account of which may be ac- 

 ceptable, as displaying the w^onderful instinct 

 possessed by the meanest and most contemptible 

 (to use a common but an unconsidered expres- 

 sion) of God's creatures. 



The Copper-coloured Weevil (C^/rcz^/io or i 

 cites ciipreus) is a small beetle, less than two lines 



* Corrupted into Prunellas, 



