70 TREATISE ON FRUIT TREES. 



There's almost no lengthwise groove dividing it. 



Its skin is a deep purple with a lot of bloom on it. It's tart, slightly leathery and 

 adheres to the flesh. 



The flesh is almost white; it's firm & tender. 



The juice is sweet & has the fragrance of a fine damson. If the skin, which doesn't 

 separate from the flesh, didn't transmit an unpleasant sourness to the juice, this would be 

 a delicious plum. 



The pit is rough & doesn't separate well from the flesh. 



The fruit ripens in mid-July or shortly thereafter. 



V. PLUM TREE with medium-sized, long purple fruit. 

 Purple DAMSON. (PL II) 



This is a vigorous tree but it yields little fruit. 



The shoots are long & thick, deep red-brown bordering on purple, lighter on the 

 shaded side, and covered with dull white down. 



The buds lie against the branch. They're often double or triple at the thick part of 

 the shoot. Their stems are grooved. 



The flowers are thirteen lignes in diameter. The petals are oval-oblong. Two or 

 three flowers emerge from the same bud, & frequently two pedicels adhere to each other 

 for almost their entire length. 



The leaves are three inches long and twenty-six lignes wide. They're much 

 narrower toward the stalk than they are at the other end where they're round. The 

 denticulation isn't very deep & is shaped like the arcs of a circle. The stalk, which is ten 

 lignes long, and a part of the midrib are a red color. 



The fruit is medium-sized, oblong, thirteen-&-a-half lignes in diameter by fifteen- 

 &-a-half lignes long. The stalk is quite thick & a little hairy. It's four to six lignes long 

 and inserts into the bottom of a small cavity. 



