284 PLUMS. 



This is, without exception, the best Plum in England ;* 

 and when grown upon a healthy standard, and fully exposed 

 to the sun, although not so large, is much richer than when 

 produced against a wall. It is also a hardy and most excel- 

 lent bearer. 



A plant of this sort was sent from France by the Earl of 

 Stair to the second Duke of Rutland, by the name of Green 

 Spanish. The name of Green Gage is said to have origi- 

 nated from the following accident : The Gage family, in 

 the last century, procured from the Monks of the Chartreuse 

 at Paris, a collection of fruit trees. When they arrived in 

 , England, the ticket of the Reine Claude had been rubbed off 

 in the passage. The gardener being from this circumstance 

 ignorant of the name, called it, when it bore fruit, Green 

 Gage. Vide Hort. Trans. Vol. i. Appendix, p. 8. by the 

 Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. 



11. LITTLE QuEEisr CLAUDE. Miller, No. 16. 

 Petite Reine Claude. Duhamel, No. 26. 



Branches slender, downy. Fruit small, of a roundish 

 figure, having a small suture, and being a little more swelled 

 on one side than on the other, about one inch and a quarter 

 deep, and a little more in diameter. Stalk half an inch long, 

 inserted in a small hollow. Skin yellowish green, covered 

 with a thick bloom. Flesh pale yellow, and separates from 

 the stone. Juice rich and well flavoured. Stone oval, with 

 an obtuse point 



Ripe the end of August. 



12. LUCOMBE'S NONESUCH. Pom. Mag. t. 99. 

 Branches smooth. Fruit extremely like a Green Gage 



in colour, but more streaked with yellow, covered with a fine 

 glaucous bloom, generally compressed in the direction of its 

 suture, which is the reverse of the usual mode of compres- 

 sion in stone fruit ; about one inch and three quarters deep, 

 and rather more than two inches in diameter. Stalk half an 

 inch long, straight, inserted in a rather wide hollow. Flesh 

 firm, of the colour and consistence of a Green Gage, and 

 adheres to the stone. Juice plentiful, of a flavour better than 

 an Orleans, but inferior to that of a Green Gage. Stont 

 ovate, not very uneven. 



Ripe about the end of August. 



A valuable variety, lately raised from seed by Messrs. 

 Lucombe, Prince, and Co. of Exeter. 



*Called Reine Claude by the French gardeners, and esteemed the finest Plum 

 in that country. Jim. Ed. 



