PLUMS, A"ND A TEW GOOD KINDS. 133 



dark-coloured plums, covered with a thick bloom, stalk 

 of medium length, and green flesh adhering to the stone, 

 is smart, but not rich in flavour. The Royal Damson is 

 similar to this, but with larger fruit. Both trees have 

 the branches downy. The Shropshire Damson has 

 smooth branches, which are not spiny ; it is said to be 

 the best kind. To give a damson tree a fair chance, it 

 must be grown a sound healthy standard, and planted 

 out, uncrowded, like any other plum tree. 



The Winesour is another plum that is worth growing 

 only on account of its goodness for cooking and preserv- 

 ing : when preserved it is very luscious, and will keep 

 for years. It is very like a damson, but fuller flavoured. 

 The kind is said to have originated near Rotherham, in 

 Yorkshire, many years back, and Eotherham is another 

 name for it. Great quantities are preserved for the 

 market round "Wakefield and Leeds, and sent all over 

 England. 



Coe's Golden Drop is a most delicious plum, which. 

 should have a place in every garden. The fruit is very 

 large, oval, greenish-yellow in colour, with rich red spots 

 on the sunny side, and very sweet and fine in flavour. 

 The suture is strongly marked, the stalk is rather long, 

 slender, and set in a cavity, and the flesh is greenish- 

 yellow, adhering to the stone, which is pointed. The 

 branches are smooth, and the leaves have two globular 

 glands at the base. It ripens the end of September, 

 but it will hang on the tree some time after, and will 

 keep long after it is gathered, either hung up by the 

 stalk to a string inside a window, with a warm aspect, or 

 each plum wrapped in soft paper, in a dry room. The 

 original tree was raised by a market gardener, named 

 Coe, at Bury St. Edmunds, the beginning of the present 

 century: the Greengage and the white Magnum Bonum 

 were the parents of this most exquisite variety. It 

 attains its greatest perfection on an east wall, but it will 

 do very well with a west aspect. It also bears well 

 as a standard, and the fruit is equally excellent for the 

 table and for preserving. Like most great favourites, 

 it has many synonymes : Coe's Imperial, New Golden 



