DOMESTIC CULi'IVATED PLUM-TREE. 247 



finally produce fruit. Trees of this variety were first sent to England in 1819, 

 to Mr. Robert Barclay, of Bury Hill; and several others were sent to the Lon- 

 don Horticultural Society, in 1821, by Dr. Hosack, of New York. 



Soil, Situation, Propagation, <^'c. The domestic cultivated plum prefers a free, 

 loamy soil, somewhat calcareous, and a little inclined to clay, and a situation 

 open, and exposed to the sun, but sheltered from the blasts of northern winds. 

 It is almost invariably propagated by grafting or budding, and is generally per- 

 formed on stocks of the most free-growing varieties ; or, when the plants are 

 intended for dwarfs, on the Mirabelle plum. The stocks may either be raised 

 from seeds, or by layers. The former should be gathered when the fruit is dead 

 ripe, mixed with sand, and turned over two or three times in the course of the 

 winter, and being sown in March, or as soon as the ground is sufficiently open, 

 they will come up in the May or June following. In Britain, or any other coun- 

 try having a humid climate, plants of this species may be very expeditiously 

 obtained, by pegging down the shoots of the preceding year, which have risen 

 from the stools, and covered with soil to the depth of an inch, or an inch and a 

 half The entire shoot being thus covered, and kept moist, each bud will pro- 

 duce a vertical shoot, a foot or more in length, according to the soil and the 

 season; and each of the shoots, when separated from the stool, in the autumn 

 following, just before the falling of the leaves, will be found to have an abun- 

 dance of roots. The branches which were laid down to produce these shoots 

 should be cut off close to the stool. This method is practised in many of the 

 European nurseries, where stocks are raised in immense quantities, to supply 

 the general demand of the trade. " Numerous as are the cultivated fruit-bearing 

 varieties of the common plum," says Mr. Loudon, "it is clear that they might 

 be increased ad infinitum ; and it is also highly probable, that nvnnerous varie- 

 ties, with fruits totally different from those of the original species, might be pro- 

 cured by cultivating the North American species, P. maritima, and P. pubescens ; 

 if, indeed, these are anything more than varieties of P. domestica. There are 

 two forms, which every description of tree seems capable of sporting into, which 

 are yet wanting in the genus Prunus, as at present limited; the one is with 

 branches pendent, and the other with branches erect and fastigiate. There can 

 be no doulDt but that an endless number of hybrids, varying in their leaves, blos- 

 soms, and fruit, might be produced by fecundating the blossoms of the plum with 

 the pollen of the almond, the peach, the apricot, and the cherry ; and, though 

 some may be disposed to assign little value to these kinds of productions, yet it 

 must not be forgotten that almost all the cultivated plants of most value to man, 

 have been produced by some kind of artificial process. Experiments of this kind, 

 therefore, ought never to be discouraged. What culture has done we know; 

 but what it may yet accomplish is concealed in the womb of time." 



As in the peach-tree, the most proper time for pruning the plum, as well as for 

 most kinds of stone-fruits, is in autumn, just as the leaves are falling, when the 

 sap is in a downward motion, and when a more perfect cicatrization of the wound 

 will take place, than if pruned in the winter or spring. 



Insects. In America, the Prunus domestica is preyed upon by various insects 

 or their larvae, among which are those of the ^geria exitiosa, that bore into its 

 trunk or roots, in a similar manner as they do into the peach-tree; and the slug- 

 worm or slimy caterpillar, {Blcnnonafnpa ccrasi, Harris,) which rests on the 

 upper surface of the leaves of the plum, as well as upon those of the cherry and 

 the pear, eating away their substance, and leaving only the veins and the skin 

 beneath untouched. =^ But by far the most injurious insect which attacks the 

 plum, is the Curculio nenuphar, (^Rkynchmnus Conotrachelus NenupJiar, Harris.) 



* See Harris' Report, p. 384. 



