PRUNUS DOMESTIGA. 
Commofi Plumb T'ree.* 
Class IcosANDRiA — Order Monogynia. 
Nat. Ord. Pomaces, Linn. RosACEiE, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Calyx five-parted, inferior. Petals, five. 
Nut of the drupe with prominent sutures. 
Spec. Char. Peduncles nearly solitary. Leaves ovate, 
pointed, convolute. Branches awnless. 
This tree is supposed to be a native of Asia, but has been so long 
naturalized to Britain that it is now ranked among our indigenous 
plants. It is found growing wild in hedge-rows and coppices in many 
parts of the country, flowering in April and May. We are told by 
Pliny that this tree was brought from Syria into Greece, and from 
thence into Italy. By Dioscorides this tree was called Ko%%0|xv]A£«, 
and the fruit Koxxv/^viAa, but it is uncertain from what particular 
variety of prune our naturalized species originally sprung.f Du 
Hamelj describes forty-eight varieties of this species of Prunus, and 
Mayer § a still greater number. The Syrian plumbs were much 
esteemed by the ancients, particularly a variety that grew in the 
neighbourhood of Damascus, and hence a variety of the fruit is still 
known by the name of Pruna Damascena. 
This species of Prunus rises to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, 
with spreading branches ; the trunk and branches are covered with 
smooth bark, of a dark brown colour ; the leaves are ovate, pointed, 
slightly serrated, veined, smooth, of a pale bright green on the upper 
surface, pubescent on the under side, stand upon short footstalks, 
which have two glands near the base of the leaf, and when young 
convoluted; the flowers surround the branches on short solitary 
peduncles; the calyx is divided into five narrow concave segments; 
* Fig. a. the fruit, b. The stone or nut. c. The kernel, 
t Bauhin refers it to the Prona cerea minor pracocia. 
$ Arbes Fruit, torn, ii. page 65 sq. 
§ Pomona Francon. torn. j. page 110. 
VOL II. 
