VI 



The Simon Plum 



THE Simon or apricot plum, 

 Prunus simoni, came to this 

 country from France about 

 fifteen or twenty years ago, but 

 it did not attract much atten- 

 tion from horticulturists till 

 about ten years ago. It is prob- 

 ably native to China, though it 

 has not been found wild. It 

 was sent to the Museum de Paris by Eugene Simon, 

 after whom it is named, and who was at that time a 

 representative of the French government in China. It 

 was first described by Carriere, a French botanist and 

 horticulturist, in a French horticultural magazine, in 

 1872. The first mention of it in this country seems 

 to date from 1881, though there is some doubt about 

 the authenticity of the observation. The first impor- 

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