118 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
Susp-Srecres I1.—Prunus domestica. Zinn. 
PiaTe CCCCX, 
P. communis, y domestica, Bab. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 91. Benth. Handbook Brit. 
Fl. p. 185. Hook. & Arn. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 119. 
A small tree with rather straight branches without spines, the 
young ones glabrous. Leaves obovate, at length glabrous beneath 
except on the midrib. Peduncles mostly in pairs, glabrous. 
Flowers usually expanding as the leaves begin to appear. Petals 
roundish. Fruit large, ovoid, or sub-globular, drooping. 
In hedge-rows, not uncommon, but having very little claim to 
be considered as truly native. 
[England, Scotland, Ireland.| Tree. Spring. 
This form bears nearly the same relation to P. insititia as the 
latter does to P. spinosa. The leaves are broader than those of 
P. insititia, and 3 inches long. The flowers 1 inch in diameter 
and the fruit nearly as much across. | 
Wild Plum. 
French, Prunier Domestique. German, Gemeine Pfllaume. 
This tree, so common in its cultivated state in all our gardens, is found apparently 
wild in woods and hedges in England ; but the circumstance that it was not known to 
the early inhabitants of our island leads to the supposition that it is not truly of native 
growth. The variety called the Orleans Plum appears to have been brought from 
France shortly after our conquest of that country under the Plantagenets, and was 
probably for some time the only kind grown, though in 1573 Tusser enumerates ten 
varieties as being cultivated : Gerarde, some twenty years later, had sixty sorts growing 
in his garden in Holborn. Most of our older varieties of Plums have been introduced 
from France ; that known as “ Greengage,” from the name of its first cultivator, was 
brought by him from the garden of the Chartreuse in Paris, having been originally 
introduced by Claude, the queen of Francis I.; and hence it is still known in France 
as “ Reine Claude.” The number and variety of the Plums which are cultivated in 
gardens, and which appear on our tables, are too great even to mention. Besides being 
eaten fresh, and forming a delicious dessert, Plums are extensively grown on the Conti- 
nent for the purpose of drying, and are then known by the name of Prunes, or French 
Plums. The best Prunes are made near Tours, of the St. Catherine Plum and the 
Prune d’Agen, and the best French Plums are made in Provence of the Perdrigon Plum 
and the Bignole. Prunes are prepared by being gathered from the trees when just 
ripe enough to fall when the tree is shaken. They are then laid on frames and exposed 
to the sun until they become as soft as ripe medlars, after which they are put in a cool 
oven, shut quite close, and left for twenty-four hours (this process is repeated three 
times) ; hey are then left to get cold, and rounded by the hand. The common sorts of 
Prunes are made from windfalls and the fruit which falls from the trees after shaking ; 
but the best French Plums are gathered in the morning befyre the sun rises, care being 
Ree Bn eT ke ee 
