118 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Sub-Species III.— Prunus domestica. Lirm. 



Plate CCCCX 



P. communis, y domestica, Bob. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 91. Benth. Handbook Brit. 

 Fl. p. 185. llook. & Am. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 119. 



A small tree with rather straight branches without spines, the 

 young ones glabrous. Leaves obovate, at length glabrous beneath 

 except on the midrib. Peduncles mostly in pairs, glabrous. 

 Mowers usually expanding as the leaves begin to appear. Petals 

 roundish. Emit large, ovoid, or sub-globular, drooping. 



In hedge-rows, not uncommon, but having very little claim to 

 be considered as truly native. 



[England, Scotland, Ireland.] Tree. Spring. 



This form bears nearly the same relation to P. iusititia as the 

 latter does to P. spinosa. The leaves are broader than those of 

 P. insititia, and 3 inches long. The flowers 1 inch in diameter 

 and the fruit nearly as much across. 



Wild Plum. 



Frencli, Prunier Domesllque. German, Gemeine PJlaume. 



This tree, so common in its cultivated state in all our gardens, is found apparently 

 ■wild in woods and hedges in England ; but the circumstance that it was not known to 

 the early inhabitants of our island leads to the supposition that it is not truly of native 

 growth. The variety called the Orleans Plum appears to have been brought from 

 France shortly after our conquest of that country under the Plantagenets, and was 

 probably for some time the only kind grown, though in 1573 Tusser enumerates ten 

 varieties as being cultivated : Gerarde, some twenty years later, had sixty sorts growing 

 in his garden in llolborn. Most of our older varieties of Plums have been introduced 

 from France ; that known as " Greengage," from the name of its first cultivator, was 

 brought by him from the garden of the Chartreuse in Paris, having been originally 

 introduced by Claude, the queen of Francis I. ; and hence it is still known in France 

 as " Reine Claude." The number and variety of the Plums which are cultivated in 

 gardens, and which appear on our tables, are too great even to mention. Besides being 

 eaten fresh, and forming a delicious dessert, Plums are extensively grown on the Conti- 

 nent for the purpose of drying, and are then known by the name of Prunes, or French 

 Plums. The best Prunes are made near Tours, of the St. Catherioe Plum and the 

 Prune d'Agen, and the best French Plums are made in Provence of the Perdrigon Plum 

 and the Biguole. Prunes are prepared by being gathered from the trees when just 

 ripe enough to fall when the tree is shaken. They are then laid on frames and exposed 

 to the sun until they become as soft as ripe medlars, after which they are put in a cool 

 oven, shut quite close, and left for twenty-four hours (this process is rejieated three 

 times) ; they are then left to get cold, and rounded by the hand. The coiumon sorts of 

 Prunes are made from windfalls and the fruit which falls from the trees after shaking ; 

 but the best French Plums are gathered in the morning before the sun rises, care being 



