The _wood_ of the cherry-tree, which is hard and tough, is much used, particularly by turners and cabinet-makers on the Continent, for the manufacture of chairs and other furniture. The _gum_ that exudes from the bark is, in many respects, equal to gum arabic (273); and is considered very nutritive. Hasselquist informs us that, during a siege, more than 100 men were kept alive for nearly two months, without any other sustenance than a little of this gum, which they occasionally took into their mouths and suffered gradually to dissolve. 156. _The APRICOT_ (Prunus Armeniaca) _is a fruit of the plum tribe, which grows wild in several parts of Armenia and was first introduced into this country about the middle of the sixteenth century._ Some persons are inclined to consider the apricot as the most delicate of all our hardy fruits. For pastry certainly none is more excellent. It is used for tarts, both green and when ripe; it is also preserved with sugar in both these states, and is sometimes dried as a sweetmeat. Care, however, should be taken to gather it before it becomes soft and mealy. The _kernels_ of apricots have a pleasantly bitter flavour, and answer much better for several purposes in confectionary than bitter almonds, which are usually applied. They likewise contain a sweet oil, which, like that of almonds, was formerly used in emulsions. The _gum_ that issues from the apricot tree is nearly similar to that of the cherry (152). The _wood_ is coarse-grained and soft, and consequently is seldom used in carpentry. Apricot trees are chiefly grown against walls, and are propagated by grafting upon plum-tree stocks. 157. _The COMMON or DOMESTIC PLUM, in all its varieties, has been derived from a wild species of plum-tree_ (Prunus domestica), _which grows in hedge-rows and thickets in 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 now 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 wholesome fruits, but, in an immature state, they are very unwholesome. _Prunes_ and _French plums_ are the dried fruit of different 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. Catherine's plums_, constitute a lucrative branch of traffic, which is almost exclusively carried on in Tours and Chatelherault. Prunes are sometimes employed in medicine, but French plums are chiefly used at table.