134. PRUNUS Cerasus. WILD CHERRY-TREE.--Is the parent of our fine cherries. It is cultivated much in Scotland for the timber, which is hard, and of use for furniture and other domestic purposes. It is the best and most lasting stock for grafting on. Persons who are about to plant this fruit would do well to inquire into the nature of the stock, as no fruit-tree is so liable to disease and become gummy as cherries are, and that is often much owing to the improved kinds being sown for stocks, which are of a more tender texture and of course less hardy than this. 135. PRUNUS insititia. SLOE-TREE.--Is of little use except when it occurs in fences. The fruit is a fine acid, and is much used by the common people, mixed with other fruits less astringent and acid, to flavour made wines. It is believed that much Port wine is improved by the same means. 136. PYRUS communis. PEAR-TREE.--This is the parent of all our fine varieties of this fruit, and is used as the stock for propagating them; these are raised from seeds for that purpose. The wood of the Peartree is in great esteem for picture frames, it receiving a stain better than almost any other timber known. 137. PYRUS Malus. CRAB-TREE.--A tree of great account, as being the parent of all our varieties of apples, and is the stock on which the fine varieties are usually grafted. A dwarf variety of this tree, called the Paradise Apple, is used for stocks for making dwarf apple trees for gardens. The juice of the Crab is called verjuice, which is in considerable demand for medicinal and other purposes. 138. QUERCUS robur. THE OAK.--Is a well known tree peculiar to Great Britain, and of the greatest interest to us as a nation. It is of very slow growth; but the timber is very strong and lasting, and hence it is used for building our shipping. The bark is supposed to contain more tannin than that of any other tree, and is valuable on that account. The acorns, or fruit, are good food for hogs, which are observed to grow very fat when turned into the forests at the season when they are ripe. The tree is raised from the acorn, which grows very readily. We have accounts of Oak trees growing to great ages, and to most enormous sizes. One instance is mentioned by Evelyn, of one growing at Cowthorp, near Weatherby, in 1776, which within three feet of the ground was sixteen yards in circumference, and its height about eighty-five feet. Hunter's Evelyn's Sylva, p. 500. 139. ROSA rubiginosa. SWEET-BRIAR.--Is a very fragrant shrub, for which it has long been cultivated in the gardens. There are several varieties in the nurseries; as the Double-flowering, Evergreen, &c. which are much esteemed. 140. RUBUS Idaeus. THE RASPBERRY.--Produces a well known fruit in great esteem, and of considerable use both as food and for medicine.