m for Bullace-wine. Boys in France call Slot's
"_Sibarelles_," because it is impossible to whistle immediately after
eating them. Some writers say the signification of "Sloe" is "that
which sets the teeth on edge."

Finally comes the true Wild Plum (_Prunus domestica_), which is
far less common than the two preceding sorts. Its flowers are large,
and in small clusters, whilst the leaves unfold with the blossom. The
fruit is a small brownish plum, intensely sharp and acrid to the taste,
and the tree is thorny. Only in this latter respect does it differ from
an inferior kind of garden plum of which the cultivation has been
neglected.

The cultivated Plum has been developed from the Wild Plum, and
has been made to exhibit some fifty varieties of form and character.
The fruit of Damascus was formerly much valued, being now
known as Damascenes, (damsons), Damasin, or Damask prune.

[521] All the Wild Plums develop thorns; but the cultivated kinds
have entirely cast them off. The Plum, as a fruit, was known to the
Romans in Cato's time, but not the tree.

"Little Jack Horner," says the familiar nursery rhyme, "sat in a
corner, eating a Christmas pie; he put in his thumb, and he pulled
out a plum, and said 'What a good boy am I.'"

"Inquit, et unum extraheus prunum,
Horner, quam fueris nobile pueris
Exemplar imitabile"!

When ripe, cultivated Plums are cooling and slightly laxative,
especially the French fruit, which is dried and bottled for dessert.
They are useful for costive habits, and may be made into an
electuary; but, when unripe, Plums provoke choleraic diarrhoea. The
garden fruit contains less sugar than cherries, but a large amount of
gelatinising pectose. Dr. Johnson was specially fond of veal pie with
plums and sugar. He taunted Boswell about the need of gardeners to
produce in Scotland what grows wild in England. "Pray, Sir," said
he, "are you ever able to bring the Sloe to perfection there?" On
Change a hundred thousand pounds are whimsically known as "a
plum," and a million of money is "a marigold." Lately a Chicago
physician whilst officiating at a Reformatory found that the boys
behaved themselves much better when taking prunes in their diet
than at any other time. These act, he supposes, on certain organs
which are the seats, and centres of the passions.

From France comes the Greengage, named in that country (out of
compliment to the Queen of Francis the First) _La Reine Claude_