Descriptions of Select Varieties of Plums. 153 



Smith's Orleans plum, by Mr. Downing, in which he attempt- 

 ed to prove the existence of such a fruit; but, unable to refer 

 it to the original description of that variety in Prince's Pomo- 

 logical Manual^ on account of the latter being a free stone 

 variety, he wrote to Mr. Prince for additional information 

 upon that important point ; Mr. Prince immediately referred 

 to the original description of it by his father, and thought it 

 " not unlikely that he, in copying, mighthave altered or trans- 

 posed a word or two," and, upon this statement, Mr. Down- 

 ing at once inferred that he 

 had identified the plum, so 

 generally cultivated under 

 half a dozen synonymes, as 

 the Smith's Orleans, of Prince. 

 In a note to his article, we 

 entirely dissented from his 

 conclusions, remarking that 

 we were in want of further 

 information, which when ob- 

 tained, we should lay before 

 our readers. We are now 

 fully prepared to do so. 



It has been our belief, that 

 Smith's Orleans was a misno- 

 mer, and that it was identi- 

 cal with the variety known 

 as Cooper's plum, and described by Coxe, Kenrick, and Man- 

 ning. 



In the spring of 1831 or '32, we received, from Messrs. 

 Prince of Flushing, several plum trees, and, among them, Coop- 

 er's Large Red. The tree was remarkable for its growth, and, 

 in consequence, it did not produce fruit for six or eight years. 

 When it came into bearing, we exhibited the fruit, and were 

 told, by some cultivators, that it was Smith's Orleans, by oth- 

 ers, Duane's Purple, and finally, in 1843, when we had some 

 beautiful specimens, by Mr. Downing, that it was the true 

 Violet Perdrigon ; but, in every instance, we denied this, and 

 not only referred to Mr. Prince, as the source from whence 

 we obtained it, but to Coxe, with Avhose description it ex- 



Fig.X^, Cooper's Red. 



