i o 2 Fruits and Fru it- Trees. 



resembling one of pale red cherries than of plums. The 

 flesh is yellowish, sweet, with a slight acidity, and juicy. 

 Though pleasant to eat just as it comes from the tree, 

 the fruit is better adapted for tarts, and for preserving 

 like ordinary plums and cherries. The production of it 

 in England is rare and scanty, owing to the exceeding 

 earliness of the bloom, and consequent exposure of the 

 still tender produce to the frosts only too frequent in 

 March and April. The tree attains the height of thirty 

 or forty feet, and when in flower, especially when placed 

 near dark evergreens, is for beauty unexcelled. The 

 native country is unknown. Whether or not it is to be 

 considered a true "species" is also doubtful. Dr. Hooker 

 thinks it may be referable to the Prunus insititia Koch 

 considers it a form of the P. divaricata of the Caucasian 

 provinces. A coloured drawing is given in the Botanical 

 Magazine, pi. 5,934 (1871). 



Then comes the Prunus Pissardt, which itself may be 

 only a variety of the cerasifera, though received from 

 Tauris, a town about two hundred and thirty miles from 

 Teheran. The specific name was bestowed in compli- 

 ment to M. Pissard, gardener to the Shah of Persia. 

 The foliage is remarkable for its deep claret-red colour; 

 the ovoid fruits, produced in abundance, almost exactly 

 match it, and, though small, have a fairly good flavour. 



The "Mume" of Japan, Prunus Mume, and the Prunus 

 tomentosa, from the same country, seem also to contain 

 elements of merit, waiting to be developed, though, in 

 truth, the trees themselves are as yet very uncommon. 



