BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
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shady places ; while the Dropwort is only found in open, dry pastures, and very rarely except in the midland 
and southern counties of England. The species takes its name of Dropwort, and also its specific name of 
Filipendula, from the curious construction of its root, the fibres of which form drop-like tubers, attached to 
each other by slender threads. The flowers, which are cream-colour, are produced in loose panicles, and they 
frequently become double by cultivation. They appear about July. The plant is a perennial. 
3.— THE MEADOW-SWEET, OR QUEEN OF THE MEADOWS. (Spiraea Ulmaria, Lin.) 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 960 ; 2nd ed., t. 704 ; and our fig. 3, : beneath ; the terminal leaflet largest and lobed. Stem herbaceous, 
in PI. 30. Flowers cymose, with many styles. {Smith.) 
Specific Character. — Leaves interruptedly pinnate; downy 
Description, &c.— This is a very common perennial plant which is found in moist meadows, and on the 
borders of ditches in every part of Great Britain. The fragrance of the flowers, which resembles that of the 
May, is perceptible at a considerable distance when the weather is calm. The flowers appear in June and July. 
II.—THE STONED-FRUIT TRIBE. 
The seeds are contained in solitary drupes, each drupe being what is commonly called a stoned-fruit, one, or 
at most two, kernels or seeds being contained in a bony seed-vessel or nut, popularly called the stone. The calyx 
falls off with the flower. This tribe contains all the stoned fruits, including the Peach, the Nectarine, the 
Almond, and the Apricot; but the only British genera are the Plum and the Cherry. All the species belonging 
to this tribe are trees or shrubs, having simple leaves and glandular petioles. They all abound in prussic acid ; 
and, when their bark is wounded, produce gum. 
GENUS II. 
THE PLUM. (Prunus, Tourn.) 
Lin.Syst. ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Vernation convolute. Drupe covered with bloom, with a smooth stone deeply furrowed at its inner edge. ( Lindley .) 
Description, &c. —Few people, who are not botanists, can imagine the very slight botanical difference 
that there is between the Plum and the Cherry. Linnaeus, indeed, included them in the same genus ; and modern 
botanists, though they have separated them, can find no more decided marks of distinction than the manner in 
which the leaf is folded in the bud, the bloom on the fruit of the Plum, and the furrows in its stone. The fruit 
of the Plum-tree has also generally a shorter stalk than that of the Cherry-tree ; and Cherries are often produced 
in bunches, while Plums are generally solitary, or, at most, only two or three together. The word Prunus is 
simply the Greek name for the Plum. The genus is placed in the Linnsean class Icosandria, because it has 
generally twenty stamens attached to the calyx; and in the order Monogynia, because it has only one style. 
1.— THE WILD PLUM. (Prunus domestica, Lin.) 
Engraving. —Eng. Bot., t. 1783 ; 2nd ed., t. 690. 
Specific Character. —Flower-stalks solitary or in pairs. Leaves lanceolate-ovate. Branches without thorns. {Lindley.) 
Description, &c. —This species, which is supposed to be the origin of all the Plums grown in our gardens, 
is rather a doubtful native. It flowers in May, and the fruit, which is ripe about August and September, is long 
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