Chap. 12.] TWELVE KINDS OF PLUMS. 295 



cerina, 43 — more esteemed, and the purple 44 plum : the Arme- 

 nian, 45 also an exotic from foreign parts, the only one among tho 

 plums that recommends itself by its smell. The plum-tree 

 grafted on the nut exhibits what we may call a piece of impu- 

 dence quite its own, for it produces a fruit that has all the ap- 

 pearance of the parent stock, together with the juice of the 

 adopted fruit : in consequence of its being thus compounded of 

 both, it is known by the name of " nuci-pruna." 46 Nut-prunes, 

 as well as the peach, the wild plum, 47 and the cerina, are often 

 put in casks, and so kept till the crop comes of the following 

 year. All the other varieties ripen with the greatest rapidity, 

 and pass off just as quickly. More recently, in Bsetica, they have 

 begun to introduce what they call "malina," or the fruit of 

 the plum engrafted on the apple-tree, 48 and " amygdalina," the 

 fruit of the plum engrafted on the almond-tree, 49 the kernel 

 found in the stone of these last being that of the almond ; 50 in- 

 deed, there is no specimen in which two fruits have been more 

 ingeniously combined in one. 



Among the foreign trees we have already spoken 51 of the 

 Damascene 52 plum, so called from Damascus, in Syria, but 

 introduced long since into Italy ; though the stone of this plum 

 is larger than usual, and the flesh smaller in quantity. This 

 plum will never dry so far as to wrinkle ; to effect that, it 

 needs the sun of its own native country. The myxa, 53 too, 



43 Or "wax plum." The Primus cereola of naturalists : the mirabelle 

 of the French. 



44 Possibly the Primus euucleata of Lamarck : the myrobalan of the 

 French. Many varieties, however, are purple. 



45 There are two opinions on this : that it is the Prunus Claudiana of 

 Lamarck, the " Reine Claude " of the French ; or else that it is identical 

 with the apricot already mentioned, remarkable for the sweetness of its 

 smell. 46 Or nut-prune. 



47 The Prunus insititia of Linnaeus. 



48 The result of this would only be a plum like that of the tree from 

 which the graft was cut. 



49 The same as with reference to the graft on the apple. 



50 This is probably quite fabulous. 51 -B. xiii. c. 10. 



52 The Prunus Damascena of the naturalists ; our common damson, with 

 its numerous varieties. 



53 Probably the Cordia myxa of Linnaeus ; the Sebestier of the French. 

 It has a viscous pulp, and is much used as a pectoral. It grows only in 

 Syria and Egypt ; and hence Fee is inclined to reject what Pliny says as 

 to its naturalization at Rome, and the account he gives as to its being en- 

 grafted on the sorb. 



