The Canadian Horticulturist. 



265 



SIMON OR APRICOT PLUM.— PRUNUS SIMONI. 



•> 'a Slip ' 



OMETHING like a dozen years ago this fruit 

 began to be talked about in North America, 

 although it did not gain any notoriety until six 

 or seven years ago. It had been introduced from 

 France, where it was first described under its 

 present name and with an admirable colored plate, 

 in 1872, by Carriere, in the Revue Horticole. I 

 do not know when the fruit reached Europe, but 

 it could not have been introduced long prior to 

 1872. It was named for Eugene Simon, who 

 sent pits to the Paris Museum while he was repre- 

 senting the French Government in China. It is 

 probably native to China, although Hemsley, in 

 his recent Flora of China, does not mention it ; 

 but this author evidently adopts Maximowicz's 

 opinion that it is indistinguishable from the 

 nectarine and does not regard it worth distinct 

 discussion. It was disseminated by Simon Brothers at Metz, in Alsace, and by 

 Thibaut <x: Keteleer, at Sceaux, France. 



Primus Simoni began to fruit in this country about 1885 or 1886. I fruited 

 it in 1886. The fruit was also figured and described in The Rural New Yorker 

 in October, 1886. The fruit, which is shown about three-fourth's size in the 

 engraving, is flattened longitudinally, marked with a deep step cavity and a very 

 prominent suture, and is borne upon a very short stem. The color is very 

 intense and striking, being a glowing dark red, slightly mottled with lighter 

 shades. The flesh is yellow, hard, and clings tightly to the somewhat apricot- 

 like pit. The flavor in all the specimens which I have tasted is very disagreeable, 

 being mawkish bitter, and leaving a pronounced bitter almond taste in the 

 mouth. I have never tried a specimen which I could say was edible, and this 

 is an unwilling confession because the fruit is exceedingly attractive to look 

 upon. Other persons appear to hive had pleasanter experience with these fruits, 

 for I occasionally read of favorable, or at least only indifferent, comments upon 

 their quality. It is said that its bitterness passes away in cooking, although my 

 experience in this direction has not been re-assuring. 



But there are other demerits in this plant besides its mawkish-bitter fruits. 

 It is not a productive tree so far as I have observed, and I have seen it in many 

 different plantations. It bears young but the fruiting is not profuse. Many of 

 the fruits are borne upon spurs upon the old wood, and they are often found 

 well down to the base of the leaf-bearing portions of the top. 



The two transcendent merits of the fruit of Prunus Simoni are the very 



