704 THE FEUIT MANUAL. 



This universally known and highly esteemed fruit has been longer in this country 

 than is generally supposed. It is said to have been introduced at the beginning of 

 the last century by Sir Thomas Gage, of Hengrave Hall, near Bury St. Edmunds, 

 who procured it from his brother, the Rev. John Gage, a Roman 'Catholic priest, 

 then resident in Paris. In course of time it became known as the Green Gage 

 Plum. 



In France, although it has many names, that by which it is best known is Grosse 

 Heine Claude, to distinguish it from a smaller and much inferior plum called Heine 

 Claude Petite. The Green Gage is supposed to be a native of Greece, and to have 

 been introduced at an early period into Italy, where it is called Verdochia. From 

 Italy it passed into France, during the reign of Francis I., and was named in honour 

 of his consort Queen Claude ; but it does not appear to have been much known or 

 extensively cultivated for a considerable period subsequent to this, for neither 

 Champier, Olivier de Serres, Vautier, nor any of the early French writers on 

 husbandry and gardening, seem to have been acquainted with it. Probably, about 

 the same time that it was introduced into France, or shortly afterwards, it found its 

 way into England, where it became more rapidly known, and the name under which 

 it was received was not the new appellation which it obtained in France, but its 

 original Italian name of Verdochia, from which we may infer that it was brought 

 direct from Italy. It is mentioned by Parkinson, in 1 629, under the name of Verdoch, 

 and, from the way in which he speaks of it, seems to have been not at all rare, nor 

 even new. It is also enumerated by Leonard Meager in the "list of fruit which I 

 had of my very loving friend, Captain Gui'le, dwelling at the Great Nursery 

 between Spitalfields and Whitechapel," and is there called Verdocha. Even so 

 late as the middle of the last century, after it had been re-introduced, and exten- 

 sively grown under the name of Green Gage, it continued to bear its original title, 

 and to be regarded as a distinct sort from the Green Gage. Hitt tries to describe 

 the distinction ; but as he tries also to show that the Reine Claude is distinct from 

 the Green Gage, his authority cannot be taken for more than it is worth ; a remark 

 which may safely be applied to all the pomologists of the last century. Miller 

 laboured under the same hallucination as Hitt, for in his Dictionary he says, 

 speaking of the Grosse Reine Claude, " this plum is confounded by most people in 

 England by the name of Green Gage." 



We have seen, therefore, that the generally received opinion that this valuable 

 plum was first introduced to this country by the Gage family is incorrect, but that 

 it must have existed for considerably upwards of a century, at least, before the 

 period which is generally given as the date of its introduction. 



Grimwood's Early Orleans. See Early Orleans. 

 Gros Damas Blanc. See Large White Damask. 

 Grosse Luisante. See White Magnum Bonum. 

 Grosse Noire Hative. See Noire de Montreuil. 

 Grosse Eeine. See Green Gage. 

 Grosse Kouge de Septembre. See Belle de Septembre. 

 Grove House Purple. See Fotheringham. 

 Guthrie's Apricot. See Guthrie's Golden. 

 Guthrie's Aunt Ann. See Aunt Ann. 



GUTHRIE'S GOLDEN (Guthrie's Apricot}. Fruit, above medium 

 size ; roundish oval. Skin, yellow, strewed with crimson dots, and 

 covered with thin bloom. Stalk, rather loDg, set in a small depression. 



