Sloe

slo, a European plum tree. It grows from four to ten feet high. It produces rather small plums of a pale blue, covered with bloom. "As black as a sloe," is expressive of dark eyes. On account of its thorns and the toughness of the twigs, the sloe makes an excellent hedge. The sloe-thorn furnishes the fine walking sticks, the redoubtable limber, tough, "blackthorn stick," of which so lively an account is given at Irish fairs. Of late these shillalahs have been so scarce and so difficult to obtain that a fine specimen commands a pound in the London market. The wood of the sloe takes a fine polish, resembling that of the appletree, and is much used for tool handles. The mild fruit has a puckery taste and is of little value. The sloe is considered, however, the ancestor of the common European domestic plum. See Plum