The Plum. 65 



be described by-and-by. The genuine stone-fruits are 

 the plum, including the greengage and the damson; the 

 cherry, the peach, the nectarine, the apricot, the almond, 

 and the produce of the cherry-laurel. 



THE PLUM (Prunus domestica). 



THE early history of the plum, like that of the apple and 

 pear, is remote and complicated. In the abstract, the 

 plum idea, so to speak, is represented by no fewer 

 than three fairly distinct typical forms, and these, for 

 convenience' sake, it is best to treat as " species," and 

 to call by distinct names. They are (i) the common 

 Sloe, sloe-thorn, or black-thorn, of every hedge and 

 thicket, well named Prunus spinosa; (2) the Bullace, 

 Prunus insititia; and (3) the form which, from its appear- 

 ing to be the more immediate source of the garden 

 plums, is called Prunus domestica. By some botanists all 

 three are run together under the single name of P. 

 domestica. Theoretically there is no objection to this ; 

 in any case we know what Latin name to give the garden 

 plums, (i) The P. spinosa is a shrub, usually not many 

 feet high, though capable of becoming a tree of fifteen 

 or twenty feet. It is densely branched, the branches 

 spreading almost at right angles, terminating in stout 

 thorns, and so intricately interwoven as to be absolutely 

 impenetrable by man, and by all but the smaller quad- 

 rupeds and birds, the latter finding it a safe refuge and 

 K 



