Smith's Orleans Plum. 411 



Manual, after describing the growth of the tree very accu- 

 rately, conckided as follows: "the fruit is round, with a 

 deep suture on one side ; the skin is of a reddish purple 

 color; the fiesh sweet, with a partial acidity, of a pleasant, 

 sprightly flavor, and separates freely frotn the stone.'' Pre- 

 suming this minute description to be correct, of a fruit 

 which was many years ago introduced to notice by the late 

 Mr. Prince, and which description was prepared by his 

 son; a fruit, too, which has long been cultivated at Flush- 

 ing, without any correction of the errors which I have 

 marked in italics, I did not hesitate to point out to the skil- 

 ful cultivators of Boston, the evident impropriety of calling 

 these plums, exhibited by them. Smith's Orleans, since, in 

 the first place, they were oval, and in the second, their flesh 

 adhered closely to the sto7ie ; two strongly marked charac- 

 teristics of this fruit, which were always at total variance 

 with the only careful description yet published. At the 

 same time, I suggested that the Violet Perdrigon, (of the 

 French, not the English authors,) the name under which 

 the plum had hitherto been known in this establishment, 

 though there were doubts of its correctness, was still much 

 more likely to be the true name, since it belonged to an 

 oval, clingstone plum. 



It should be remarked that neither Mr. Kenrick nor Mr. 

 Manning, in their very brief descriptions of this plum, throw 

 any additional light on the subject, as they merely describe 

 it as a large purple fruit, and say nothing of its separating 

 or adhering to the stone.^ 



In this unsatisfactory state of the description respecting 

 the name of this tree, many nurserymen contending that it 

 certainly was Smith's Orleans, though at the same time it 

 undeniably bore oval or oblonsc instead of round fruit, and 

 was a veritable clingstone instead of a freestone, I deter- 

 mined, if possible, to settle the matter, by referring the tree 

 itself back to Mr. Prince, in order that we might learn if 

 the difficulty did not. as I suspected, grow out of a very 

 marked error in his original description of the fruit. 



Mr. Prince identified the tree at once, and, in admitting 

 his surprise that the errors here pointed out had so long es- 



* In the last edition of the Lend. Hort. Society's Catalogue, the name is 

 given, but no characteristics ; probably as it has not yet fruited there. 



