d, 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 ar