PLUMS. 



107 



duced but a few years since, it has produced fruit in a number 

 of instances, some specimens of which were last year exhibited 

 to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. The fruit is of 

 very large size, and of an oval form ; the skin is of a fine 

 purple colour, with a slight bloom ; the flesh adheres to the 

 stone, and resembles that of the Monsieur, but is not quite 

 equal to it in quality. It attains its maturity in the month of 

 August. The Pomological Magazine quotes the Peach plum 

 of the Horticultural Society's Catalogue, as a synonyme of the 

 Nectarine plum ; but whether that synonyme refers to the kind 

 here described, appears to be a point not adequately settled, 

 otherwise the Prune peche of Duhamel and other French 

 authors would have been also quoted as a synonyme : such 

 omission would be unpardonable if the point of identity had 

 been satisfactorily ascertained by the authors of that work. 



ISABELLA. POM. MAG. 



This plum is said to exceed most of the English varieties, 

 and to be secondary only to the Green Gage, Coe's Golden 

 Drop, the Washington, and other plums of primary excel- 

 lence. The Pomological Magazine gives the following ac- 

 count of it : 



" This tree is said to produce three crops a year. In the 

 specimens we examined there was fruit perfectly ripe and half 

 grown. The shoots are vigorous, brownish, and pubescent, 

 like an Orleans; the leaves middle-sized, oval, crenated, 

 slightly pubescent above; petioles of medium length and 

 thickness ; flowers middled-sized ; petals roundish, obovate ; 

 the fruit two inches and a quarter long, and one and five- 

 eighths broad, oblong, and tapering towards the stalk, with 

 very little apparent suture ; stalk half an inch long, very 

 slightly downy ; skin deep dull brownish red when nearly ripe, 

 where shaded a little inclining to yellow, copiously covered 

 with deep-coloured dots; flesh sweet, rich, and very agreeable, 

 adhering to the stone, which is acute at each end, but taper- 

 ing a good deal towards the base, and one and a quarter 

 inches long." 



