THE PLUM. 



333 



are cultivated; and, as they ripen earlier than 

 the peach and nectarine, they are in considerable 

 estimation. Some varieties are exceedingly de- 

 licious; and the Persians, in their figurative lan- 

 guage, call the apricot of Iran "the seed of the sun ." 



It should seem that the apricot was known in 

 Italy in the time of Dioscorides; and that it got 

 its name precocia from ripening earlier than some 

 other fruits. The modern Greek name tti^ixvk- 

 Ko. is very like the Arabic name berikach. The 

 llomans set little value upon the apricot, as ap- 

 pears by an epigram of Martial. If the ancient 

 name is to be retained, a-precoke, as it used to 

 be styled by our most earl}'' wi'itcrs on horticul- 

 ture, is the classical appellation, and the modern 

 apricot the vulgarism or corruption. 



The apricot is said to derive its scientific name 

 from its almost covering the slopes of the Cau- 

 casus, the Ararat, and the otlier mountains in and 

 about Armenia, up almost to the margin of the 

 snow. The general opinion that it is a native of 

 Annenia has, however, been controverted by M. 

 Kegnier, a French naturalist, who contends, that 

 as Armenia is a high mountainous country, the 

 climate of which resembles that of middle 

 Europe, it cannot possibly be the country of a 

 tree which begins to flower so early, that its 

 blossoms are often destroyed by the frost, not- 

 withstanding every care of the cultivator. The 

 apricot, too, although it has been cultivated in 

 Europe for many ages, never sprang up from 

 Deeds in any of our forests; neither has it been 

 found wild either in Armenia or any of the 

 neighbouring provinces. M. Ilegnieris of opin- 

 ion that it is a native of Africa, and that its 

 limits appear to be a parallel between the Niger 

 and the range of the Atlas mountains, from 

 whence it has, by cultivation, been carried to- 

 wards the north. 



Apricots are very plentiful, and in great var- 

 iety, in China; and the natives employ them 

 variously in the arts. From the wild tree, the 

 pulp of whose fruit is of little value, but which 

 has a large kernel, they extract an oil; they pre- 

 serve the fruit wet in all its flavour; and they 

 make lozenges of the clarified juice, which afford 

 a very agreeable beverage when dissolved in water. 

 The apricot attains the size of a large tree in 

 Japan. It also flourishes in such abundance 

 npon the Oases, as to be dried and carried to 

 Egypt as an article of commerce. In those sul- 

 try climates, the flavour is exquisite, though the 

 fruit is small. 



Ciough, in his British Topography, states that 

 the apricot tree was first brought to England, in 

 152i, by Woolf, the gardener to Henry VIII. 

 Gerard had two varieties in his garden. 



There are fifteen or twenty excellent varieties 

 of apricot, besides the peach apricot, a large 

 fruit supposed to be a hybrid, between a peach 

 and an apricot. 



New varieties are procured by planting the 

 seed; and approved sorts are propagated by bud- 

 ding on plum stocks. The trees are trained 

 against the wall, and bear in the open air, in all 

 the sheltered parts of Britain. The fruit is pro- 

 duced on the young shoots of last year, or some- 

 times on two or three year old spurs. The bear- 

 ing shoots throw out the blossoms immediately 

 from the eyes along the sides, and the buds have 

 a round and swelling appearance. The apricot 

 does not force well. 



TuE Plum, (pninus domeslica.J The plum 

 appears to be still more widely diffused in its 

 original locality than the apri- 

 cot; and it is much more prone 

 to run into varieties. It is a 

 tree of fifteen to twenty feet in 

 height, and branches out into a 

 moderately spreading head. It 

 is a native of Asia, and of many 

 parts of Europe; and even grows 

 wild in the hedges in some 

 parts of Britain, though possi- 

 bly it may have found its way 

 there from some of the culti- 

 vated sorts, and have degener- 

 ated. The plum, and almost all 

 its species, is very apt to I'un under ground, and 

 produce suckers from the roots. Du Ilamel says 

 that if plums are grafted low, and covered with 

 earth, they push out shoots which may be trans- 

 planted. 



Plums of various sorts appear to have been 

 introduced into England as early as the fifteenth 

 century. These varieties came to us from France 

 and Italy. The "Green-gage" is the Heine 

 Claude of France, so called from having been in- 

 troduced into that country by the wife of Francis 

 I. It is called gage in England, after the name 

 of the family who first cultivated it here. The 

 "Orleans" probably came to us when we held 

 possession of that part of France from which it 

 takes its name. Lord Cromwell introduced 

 several plums from Italy, in the time of Henry 

 VII. The damson, or damascene, as its name 

 imports, is from Damascxis. 



In some countries, particularly in Alsatia, a 

 considerable quantity of alcohol is produced from 

 plums and chcmes by fenuentation. Dried 

 plums form a large article of commerce, under 

 the name of prunes and French plums. 



There are nearly three hundred varieties of 

 plums, many of which are, perhaps, only dis- 

 similar in name. The Washington, a modern 

 variety, which is stated in the Pomologieal Ma- 

 gazine not to be surpassed in richness of flavour, 

 beauty, and other good qualities, by any, is 

 curious in its origin. The parent tree was pur- 

 chased in the market of New York, some time 

 in the end of last century. It remained barren 

 several years, till, during a violent thunder- 



