

Priams domestica, 

 THE DOMESTIC CULTIVATED PLUM-TREE. 



Synonymes, 



ILi.NN^us, Species Plantarum. 

 De Candolle, Prodromus. 

 Loudon, Arboretum Britanaicum. 

 Frunier domestique, France. 



Gemeine Pflaume, Pflaumeiibaum, Germany. 



Pruno, Susino, Susino domestico, Italy. 



Ciruelo, Spain. 



Amexieira, Portugal. 



Plum-tree, Britain and Anglo- America. 



Derivation. The specific name, domestica, is derived from the Latin domus, a house, having reference to this tree as being 

 cultivated about houses, or appertaining to home. 



Engrarings. London Pomological Magazine ; Hoffy, Orchardist's Companion; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, vi., pi. 111.; 

 and the figures below. 



Specific Characters. Branches spineless. Flowers mostly solitary. Leaves lanceolate-ovate, concave on 

 the surface, not flat. De Candolle, Prodromus. 



Description. 



!HE Primus domes- 

 tica usually grows 

 |}) LI ^ to a height of fif- 



K^i^l teen or twenty feet, 



and from six to ten inches in diameter. It 

 somewhat resembles the common sloe, (Pru- 

 nus spinosa,) but larger in all its parts, and 

 is without thorns. The bark is black, and 

 the leaves are of a dark-green. The roots 

 are creeping, and, in most soils and situations, throw up numerous suckers. The 

 flowers put forth, in England and in the central parts of the United States, by the 

 middle of April, and nearly a month later at Berlin, in Prussia, and at Boston, in 

 Massachusetts. They are mostly solitary, and contain from twenty to thirty 

 filaments, with yellowish anthers. The style is generally only one ; but there 

 are sometimes two. The drupe is globose, depressed at the base, or oblong-ovate, 

 fleshy, glabrous, and covered with a bloom. 



Varieties. There are more than three hundred varieties and sub-varieties of 

 the domestic cultivated plum, enumerated in catalogues, many of which, perhaps, 

 are only dissimilar in name. It is the opinion of some authors that this species 

 and all its variations, as well as the bullace plum, originated from the common 

 sloe. On this point, however, botanists do not agree, and as it will be irrelevant 

 to our purpose to undertake to refute or defend such a belief, we shall here only 

 notice those which have some pretensions to distinctness of character, and have 

 been cultivated either for ornament or profit. 



1. P. D. ARiNiENioiDEs, Dc Caudolle. Apricot-like Plum-tree ; MirabcUe or Drap 

 iTor, of the French. The leaves, the fruit, and the general habit of this variety 

 bear some resemblance to those of the Armeniaca brigantiaca. It appears to be 

 intermediate between the wild plum and the wild apricot. 



2. P. D. CLAUDiANA, Dc ('aiidollc. The Empress Cldiidina's Plum-tree ; Green 

 Gag-e, of the English; Jieine-cluude, of the French; and Griine Ko)iigspJlaume^ 



,rat 



