144 BULLACE PLUM. 
several parts of England ; and is distinguished by its branches 
being without thorns, and its fruit-stalks being single. 
Were it not a well-established fact, few persons 
would suppose that the magnum bonum, or egg plum, 
the green gage, and several others, which are no\v 
common in our gardens, are indebted, for their parent 
stock, to the wild plum above-mentioned. These are 
all used at table ; and, when sufficiently ripe, and 
eaten in moderate quantity, are pleasant and whole- 
some fruits, but, in an immature state, they are very 
unwholesome. 
Prunes and French plums are the dried fruit of dif- 
ferent kinds of plum-trees. They are usually packed 
in boxes, and are imported from the Continent, but 
particularly from the neighbourhood of Marseilles. 
Brignolles, a town of Provence, about thirty miles 
from Marseilles, is one of the most famous places in 
France for dried prunes.. Prunes or St. Catherines 
plums, constitute a lucrative branch of traffic, which 
is almost exclusively carried on in Tours and Chatel- 
herault. Prunes are sometimes employed in medicine, 
but French plums are chiefly -used at table. 
The wood of the plum-tree is of little value; but the 
bark is in occasional request as affording a yellow dye. 
153. The BULLACE PLUM is a small violet- coloured 
fruit of globular shape, produced bij a shrub (Primus insititia) 
which grows wild in our hedges, and is known by its branches 
being thorny, and its fruit-stalks in pairs. 
The plum has a rough, but not unpleasantly acid 
taste, especially after it has been mellowed by the frost. 
A conserve, called bullace cheese, is sometimes pre- 
pared by mixture of the pulp of the bullace with about 
thrice its weight of sugar. In several parts of Germany 
this fruit is preserved in vinegar and spice ; and is oc- 
casionally used, in the manner of cherries, for the fla- 
vouring of brandy. An infusion of the flowers, sweet- 
ened with sugar, is sometimes used medicinally for 
