PLUMS. 115 
This fruit ripens several weeks earlier than the peach to 
which it is allied. The National Convention of Fruit- 
growers, adopted unanimously as of the first quality known 
in the United States, the following varieties, viz: The 
Large Early, Breda, ana Moorpark. The kind known as 
the peach apricot was pronuunced identical with the Moor- 
park. 
The tendency of this tree to put out its flowers very 
early in the scason, and much before the Almond and 
Peach, subjects its fruit to great risk from nipping spring 
frosts. This difficulty increases in proceeding from the 
North to the South. 
The Prum Tree (Prunus domestica) is considered by 
Sir J. E. Smith as a native of England. Many of the best 
cultivated varieties, however, have been introduced from 
France. The Hort. Soc. Catalogue enumerates 274 sorts, 
though probably all of these are not well ascertained. We 
shall first notice a few of the best dessert plums, and then 
give a list of select kitchen sorts. 
The Green-Gage is the Reine Claude of the French. 
Being a great favorite at Paris (as it is everywhere else) 
during the ferment of the first Revolution, when all allu- 
sions to royalty were proscribed, it retained its popularity 
under the title of Prune Citoyenne. It was introduced into 
England by the Gage family, and the foreign name having 
been lost, it obtained its present appellation. It is a fruit 
of first-rate excellence, the flavor being exquisite. The tree 
deserves a place against an east or west wall, where the 
fruit acquires a larger size, without materially falling off in 
richness of flavor. Treated as a wall tree, it seldom bears 
well till it be old; and it is very impatient of exact train- 
ing, as indeed most plums are. In warm situations it 
