92 ON AN ANOMALOUS FORM OF THE PLUM. 



flabby ; as the fruit continued to increase in magnitude, its 

 colour grew darker, and of a more ruddy yellow, and at the end 

 of a fortniiih t or three weeks, the size of the abortive fruit rather 

 exceeded that of a ripe walnut. In fact, an observer might 

 imajjine himself to be walkinij amonfrst trees laden with ripe 

 apricots, but like the fabled fruit on the banks of the Dead 

 Sea, these plums, though tempting to the eye, when examined 

 were found to be hollow, containing air, and consistuig 

 only of a distended skin, insipid and tasteless. By and by» 

 a greenish mould is developed on the surface or the blighted 

 fruit, then the surface becomes black and shrivelled, and at 

 the expiration of a month from tlie time of flowering, the 

 whole are rotten and decomposed. The flower appears 

 about the beginning of June, and before August there is 

 hardly a plum to be seen. 



The same phenomenon occurred this year, only that many 

 more advanced to maturity in the natural way, and I dare say 

 there will be a good number of plums ripened this season. 

 What is also curious is that, if there be two flower-stalks 

 from the same point in the branch, one of the ovaria will 

 often go on to ripen in the normal way, while the other will 

 become abortive and wither, as above described. Sometimes 

 the abortive fruits turn mouldy and rotten, while small; at 

 other times they assume a rounded figure, and are larger 

 than a ripe fruit ought to be; while again the carpel will 

 occasionally become as much elongated as the pod of a legu- 

 minous plant. The latter form was observed to liave once 

 occurred in a garden at Sullen in Chablais, and this is the 

 only instance which I can discover on record of any such 

 degeneration of the fruit of the Plum-tree. It is mentioned 

 by M. De Candolle, in his Memoir on the LeguminoscB, where 

 he is trying to establish the analogy between the plants be- 

 longing to the Rosaceous, and those of i\\e Leguminous families. 

 On examining one of these abortive fruits, we find matter 

 deserving of attention and record; indeed, all anomalous 

 forms, whether in the animal or vegetable kingdom, are i'^ 

 the highest degree worthy of study. Modern science is now 



