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Show PLUM TREE. A485 belly, which they perform by lubricating the passages, and softening the excrement. They are of considerable service in costiveness, accompanied with heat or irritation, which the more stimulating cathartics would tend to aggravate: where prunes are not of themselves sufficient, their action may be promoted by joining with them a little rhubarb or the like, to which may be added some carminative ingredient, to prevent their occasion. ing flatulency. It enters properly into the composition well known by the name oflenitive electuary ; and even taken alone gently, in some constitutions, opens the body. They are stewed. The French prunesarethe best. COMMON PRUNE, or PLUM TREE. PRUNUS DOMESTICA. Class XII. Ieosandria. Order I, Monogynia. Essent. Gen. Cuar. The sameas the last. Spec. Cuar. Peduncles subsolitary : Leaves lanceolate-oya te, convolute: Branches unarmed. SE _ DESCRIPTION. Tus species rises higher than the last, is witho ut thorns; the leaves are oval, slightly indented at the edges, pointed, and stand uponshort footstalks, HISTORY, This tree is found wild in hedges in England, but has probably originated fromthe stones of the cultivated kinds being dropped there by accident. It flowers in April. Great quantities of the dried fruit are imported from the continent, of which the Frenck prunes are reckonedthe best. MEDICAL VIRTUES, They contain much mucilaginous and saccharine matter, and their medical effects are, to abate heat. aad gently loose n the |