1114
ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.
Uses. —The fruit, both fresh and preserved, is employed as a ^ esS ^,Its use is objectionable in gouty persons, and in those w hose bovvel * jiJeasily disordered. When stewed with sugar, it may be given as a 1 jlaxative to convalescents. The kernels may be used as the bitter al' 110 '*The blossoms are scarcely ever administered in this country; but t ■'have been recommended as a vermifuge. The leaves are sometimes 6ployed by the cook and liqueur-maker, for flavouring. They have abeen used as a substitute for China -tea (Murray, App. Med.) They habeen recommended as a vermifuge, and more recently to allay irritaof the bladder and urethra. ’
Administration. —The dose of peach-blossoms is half an ounce oifresh, or a drachm of the dried, flowers, infused in water (Murray* ?supra cit.) The dose of the infusion of peach-leaves (prepared by mging 3ss. of the dried leaves in Oj. of boiling water) is fSss. three tma day.
Sex. Syst. Icosandria, Monogynia.
History. —Dioscorides (lib. i. cap. 174) calls this tree the koksv^while the fruit he terms KOKKvprj\ov. t j, ;
Botany. Gen. Char.—D rupe ovate or oblong, fleshy, quite sin °° oncovered with a pruiuose powder. Putamen (stone) compressed, acU . te u)1 gboth sides, somewhat furrowed at the edges, otherwise smooth. ^ e( Jleaves convolute. Pedicels umbellato-fasciculate, one-flowered, eV °before or after the leaves (D. C.) , 0 -
Sp. Char. —Flowers almost solitary. Leaves lanceolate-ovate, clute. Branches not spinous (D. C.)—A small tree. Flowers white-
pe-
Gardeners admit several hundred varieties (270, Don. Syst. of Gard. ii- 499)-candolle admits the following- varieties:—
o. Armenioides, including the Mirabelle Plum.
0. Claudiana, including the Green Gage,y. Myrobalana , including the Myrobalan Plum.
8. Damascena, including the Damask Plum.e. Turonensis, including the Orleans Plum.
Juliana, yields the Officinal Prune,v. Catherinea, including the St. Catharine Plum.
0. Aubertiana, including the Magnum Bonum, or Mogul Plum-*. Prunealina, including the Damson.
Hab. —South of Europe . Cultivated in gardens and orchards. y e( jDescription. —The dried fruits of the Prunus domestica are - c gprunes \ f ructus siccatus pruni; drupce siccatcepruni). In warm c . ,.^1they are dried on hurdles by solar heat; but in colder climates? a j^jngheat is employed. In France both methods are adopted; the frui j a y,.exposed to the heat of an oven and to that of the sun, on alternaTable prunes are prepared from the larger kinds of plum—as t ^ oll i
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Catherine and the lleine-Claude (Green Gage): Medicinalp>' m ^