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Long work it were,

Here to account the endlesse progeny

Of all the Weeds that bud and blossom there;

But so much as doth need must needs be counted here."

SPENSER.

"The contemplation of Nature can never be otherwise than beneficial, and to see her beauties with an instructed eye will add a zest, even to the loveliest province of Creation, utterly unfelt by the careless observer." BRIT. BOT.

CLASS XII.

ICOSANDRIA.

MONOGYNIA.

PRU'NUS. Cal. beneath, five-cleft: Bloss. five petals: Drupa with an entire nut.

[Cratægus.]

DIGYNIA.

CRATE GUS. Cal. superior, five-cleft: Bloss. five petals: Berry (only dimpled, E.) two-seeded.

[Prunus insititia.]

MES'PILUS.

PENTAGYNIA.

Cal. superior, five-cleft: Bloss. five petals: (Apple (Pomum) five-seeded, deeply concave at the top. E.) PY'RUS. Cal. superior, five-cleft: Bloss. five petals: (Fruit a Pomum, with two to five (generally two-seeded) cells. E.)

SPIRE'A. Cal. beneath, five-cleft: Bloss. five petals: Pericarps three to twelve, one-celled, two-valved: Seeds one to three in each cell. E.)

POLYGYNIA.

RO'SA. Cal. five-cleft: Bloss. five petals: Calyx contracting so as to form a fleshy, many-seeded berry.

VOL. III.

RU'BUS. Cal. five-cleft: Bloss. five petals: Berry superior, compound, (granules single-seeded. E.)

TORMENTIL'LA. Cal. eight-cleft: Bloss. four petals: Seeds eight, awnless.

DRY'AS. Cal. five to ten-cleft: Bloss. five to eight petals : Seeds many, with feathery awns.

FRAGA'RIA. Cal. ten-cleft: Bloss. five petals: Seeds many, deciduous, smooth, placed on a berry-like receptacle. Cal. ten-cleft: Bloss. five petals: (Seeds many, beardless, rugose. E.)

POTENTILLA.

GE'UM. Cal. ten-cleft: Bloss. five petals: Seeds many, with a jointed awn.

CO'MARUM. Cal. ten-cleft: Bloss. five petals: Seeds many permanent, upon a fleshy, globular, villous receptacle. [Spirea. Sempervivum tectorum.]

MONOGYNIA.

PRUNUS.* Calyx five-cleft, beneath: Petals five: Drupa one-celled, closed at top: Nut with prominent seams.

P. PADUS.

Flowers in pendulous bunches: leaves deciduous, with two glands at the base on the under side.

(E. Bot. 1383. E.)-Fl. Dan. 205—Ger. 1322. 9—Dod. 777. 1—Ger. Em. 1504. 9-J. B. i. a. 228—Lob. Obs. 593. 2-Park. 1517. 3.

(A small tree, with smooth bark. E.) Calyx finely serrated; within at the bottom beset with numerous woolly hairs. Petals serrated. Stamens twenty-five. (Leaves alternate, on leaf-stalks, inversely-egg-shaped, sharp-pointed, serrated, veined, smooth, slightly glaucous, smelling somewhat like Rue. Bunches solitary, simple, many-flowered, leafy at the base. Flowers white. Fruit black, nauseous. Fl. Brit. Stone of the drupa rugose, answering the characters of Amygdalus, not smooth as in Prunus; thus confirming the assertion of Gærtner, that no solid character exists between these two genera. E. Bot. E.)

BIRD CHERRY. (In Scotland HOG CHERRY. E.) Woods and hedges in the northern counties. Ir a lane between Temple Mills and Epping Forest. About Ingleborough, Yorkshire. Curtis. Woods in Norfolk, common. Mr. Woodward. Hedges at Pendeford, Stafford. Mr. Pitt. Woods by the Tees. Mr. Robson. A few miles north of Manchester, very common in woods and hedges. Mr. Caley. (All along the banks of the Dee. Mr.

* (Said to be a word of Asiatic origin; in Greek pan, supposed to signify the wild Plum. E.)

Anderson. In every wood near Keswick, and in Ennersdale. Mr. Winch. Arniston woods, near Edinburgh. Dr. Greville. But no where with more pleasing effect than in the romantic Dovedale, does—

"The light Bird Cherry hangs its flag,

In snowy splendour from the crag." E.)

T. May.

P. CER'ASUS. Umbels mostly on short fruit-stalks: leaves egg-spearshaped, smooth, plicate: (slightly downy beneath. E.)

(E. Bot. 706. E.)—Sheldr. 54. 1 and 6-Hunt. Evel. 188. 1. p. 181. Ed. ii.
-Blackw. 449—Matth. 233 and 235-Dod. 808. 1-Ger. 1502. 1-Ger.
1319. 1-Fuchs. 425—J. B. i. a. 220-Trug. 1026-Lonic. i. 13. 2.
(A moderate sized tree with smooth, greyish, horizontally splitting bark. E.)
Leaf-scales toothed. Floral-leaves three-cleft, serrated; the intermediate
one leafy. The terminal buds producing leaves, the lateral ones flowers,
which are from the last year's shoots. Blossoms white. Fruit red. Linn.
(Leaves on leaf-stalks, sharp-pointed, unequally serrated, veined; the
younger ones more or less pubescent. Calyx reflexed. Nut hard, smooth.
Fl. Brit. E.)

WILD CHERRY-TREE. (GREEN TREE, in Scotland. Irish: Cran silin.
Welsh: Ceriosen. S. W. Sirianen. N. W. E.) Woods and hedges not
uncommon. (In Hertfordshire growing to a large size. Mr. Woodward.
Many fine trees of this sort grow at Whixley, near Wetherby. Dr.
Hunter. E.)
T. May.t

The Bird Cherry grows well in woods, groves, or fields, but not in a moist soil. It bears lopping and suffers the grass to grow under it. The fruit is nauseous: but bruised, and infused in wine or brandy, it imparts an agreeable flavour. (Dr. Clarke says, the Swedes flavour their distilled spirits with the blossoms. E.) A strong decoction of the bark is used by the Finlanders to cure syphilitic complaints; which practice is corroborated by the testimony of M. Broerland in the Stockh. Tr. He directs six ounces of the dry, or eight of the fresh bark, to be boiled in eight to four pints of water. The dose is four ounces, four times a day. -It alone cures the slighter infections, and combined with Mercury facilitates the cure of the severer states of the disease. Venel. A decoction of the berries is sometimes given with success in dysentery. The wood being smooth and tough is made into handles for knives, and whips, (and is used in cabinet work. The twigs are tough and pliant, and serviceable for withs. E.) Sheep, goats, and swine eat it. Cows are not fond of it. Horses refuse it. (Erincum Padi, Grev. Scot. Crypt. 157. 1; "in distinct roundish patches, whitish when young, changing to orange and deep brown," may be observed on the leaves. E.)

(In France the Wild Cherry-tree is admitted as an ornament to avenues and parks; but, though it will attain to considerable height, and is attractive when in full blossom, it can be deemed little more than the beauty of a day. The double-blossomed, (of which dwarfs may be procured), and the red-flowering varieties, have strong claims to admittance into the shrubbery; especially the former, whose multiplicate and snow-white petals, displayed on long, slender footstalks, obtain universal admiration. E.) The Cherry-tree loves a sandy soil, and an elevated situation. The gum that exudes from this tree is equal to gum arabic, (obtained from certain species of Acacia) though differing in chemical qualities. E.) Hasselquist relates, that more than one hundred men, during a siege, were kept alive for nearly two months, without any other sustenance than a little of this gun taken into the mouth sometimes, and suffered gradually to dissolve. (To produce an effect so surprising, we must suppose it to operate in a two-fold manner,—both by lubricating the coats of the stomach and obtunding the inordinate action of the gastric fluid, as also, though perhaps in a secondary degree, by its nutritive quality; in which it would appear even to approach animal gluten, which yields so extraordinary a degree of support in the form of portable soup, or cavalry balls, and experienced in the late campaigns. (It is remarkable that the barks of all the trees which furnish this bland mucilaginous substance are highly astringent; that of the Acacia itself is used in India for tanning; and in our country the Cherry and Plum trees, which also yield gum, have astringent barks." Edin. Dispens. The fruit,

(Var. 2. Fructu nigro. Fruit black. The hairiness on the under surface of the leaf proves too variable to constitute a specific distinction. E.) Ludw. 108-Blackw. 425-Sheldr. 54. 5-Ger. 1323. 11.

BLACK CHERRY. MAZZARDS. CARRONS, CARONE, or CROWN, in Hertfordshire, when cultivated. In some southern counties, Wild Cherries are likewise called Merries, from the French Merise. Welsh: Ceriosen, Sirianen ddû. P. avium. Linn. With., &c. P. Cerasus d. Sm. P. nigra. Ehrh. Cerasus sylvestris, fructu nigro. Ray. C. nigra. Ger. Em. E.)

P. DOMESTICA. Fruit-stalks mostly solitary: leaves spear-egg-shaped, convolute when young: branches thornless.

(E. Bot. 1783. E.)-Woodv. 85—Park. 1512. 1—Ger. 1311. 1—Matth. 265 —Lonic. i. 52. 1-Fuchs. 403-Trag. 1019-Dod. 805—Lob. Obs. 595. 2 -Ger. Em. 1497. 1.

(A moderate-sized tree. E.) Leaves, when expanding from the bud, coiled. Flowering-buds producing no leaves. Linn. Calyx sometimes six-cleft. Style crooked. (Leaves on short foot-stalks, serrated, smooth, the younger ones pubescent beneath. Petals white, inversely egg-shaped. Fruit large, black, with a fine bloom, elliptical. Fl. Brit. E.) WILD PLUM-TREE. (Welsh: Eirinen; Eirin-bren. P. communis domestica. Hads. P. gallica; (the fruit.) Pharm. Lond. Hedges, and similar situations, though perhaps rarely found in a perfectly native state. E.) T. April.

(though inferior), may be eaten either fresh or dried; and it is frequently infused in brandy for the sake of its flavour. The wood is hard and tough. It is used by the turner, and is formed into chairs and hoops, and stained to imitate mahogany, (to which valuable wood, both in grain and colour, it opproaches nearer than any other of this country. E.) This tree is the original stock from which the cultivated kinds are derived, (which, however agreeable to the palate, if taken in large quantities, are apt to prove indigestible. The finer sorts were first introduced into Kent from Flanders, temp. Hen. VIII.—Mr. Brinkley observes—“the eatable part of the cherry, (or other stone fruit), first serves the purposes of perfecting the seed or kernel, by means of vessels passing through the stone. After the kernel is perfected, the stone becomes hard, and the vessels cease their functions. But the substance surrounding the stone is not then thrown away as useless. That which was before only an instrument for perfecting the kernel, now receives and retains to itself the whole of the sun's influence, and thereby becomes a grateful food to man. Also what an evident mark of design is the stone protecting the kernel. The intervention of the stone prevents the second use from interfering with the first." And since we cannot but admit with the judicious Paley, that "arrangement, disposition of parts, subserviency of means to an end, relation of instruments to a use, imply the presence of intelligence and mind; " as an occupation worthy of the utmost attention of rational, though firit: beings,

"Each secret spring, each organ let us trace,

That mock the proudest art of human race."

A parasitic fungus of doubtful genus, (according to Purton), having some affinity to Peziza, to Sphæria, and to Clavaria, (Peziza Cerasi, of Persoon), is found very common on the dead branches of the wild Cherry tree. "At first it is externally black-afterwards bursting, exhibits a paler colour beneath." Livia Cerasi may be detected on this tree. E.)

* The Wild Pluni-tree loves a lofty exposure, and is less injurious to pasturage than many other trees. The varieties have probably originated from the red and white cultivated plum, either sown by design or accident. The garden plums are derived from this species, at first raised from the stones, but afterwards preserved by budding and grafting on any plum-stock. Cotton may be died of a rose colour by the juice of the wild fruit, combined with muriatic or sulphuric acid. E.) The bark dyes yellow. (Livia Prune may be observed upon this tree. E.)

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