THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 27 



had a pomology of its own in which the varieties of any fruit were few 

 and similar, constituting but one, or at most a very few types. The var- 

 ious groups of plums, therefore, largely represent distinct plum-growing 

 regions. With the increase in intercourse between the countries of the 

 world, cultivated plums have been taken from place to place and as new 

 varieties have originated, often from crosses between varieties, the divid- 

 ing lines between divisions have been more or less broken down. The 

 first of the groups to be considered is: — 



The Reine Claude or Green Gage Plums. — ^This group is so distinctive 

 in several characters that some botanists and pomologists separate it 

 from other Domestica plums as a sub-species or species' and in common 

 parlance its numerous varieties are very generally grouped together as 

 " green gages " as if it were quite a distinct fruit from other plums. It 

 comprises a considerable niimber of relatively small, round, mostly green 

 or golden plxoms of so high quality as to make them standards in this 

 respect for all plums. The Reine Claude is one of the oldest types of which 

 there are records. Its varieties reproduce themselves without much varia- 

 tion from seed though there are a few sorts, possibly crosses with some 

 other group, which are doubtfully referred to the Reine Claudes. The 

 later history of these plums is most interesting and is reliable, for the 

 group is recognized and discussed by almost every European or American 

 pomologist who has written in three centuries.' The early history is not 

 so well known. 



Where the Reine Claude plums originated no one knows. Koch' 

 says he has eaten wild plums in the Trans-Caucasian region, which must 

 be recorded with the Reine Claudes, but on the next page he advances 

 the theory that the group is a hybrid between Prunus domestica and Prunus 

 insititia. Schneider* puts the Reine Claudes in Prunus insititia. The 

 group seems to be a connecting Unk between the two species named above, 

 having so many characters in common with each that it is exceedingly 

 difficult to choose between the two as possible parent species. Prunus 

 domestica probably originated in the Caucasian or Caspian region, and it 

 is likely, as Koch suggests, that the Reine Claudes were brought from 

 there. This is substantiated by the early pomologists, who say these 



'P. domestica cereola L. {Sp. PI. 475. 1753), P. claudiana Poir. (Lam. Encycl. 5:677. 1804), 

 P. italica Borkh. (Handb. Forstb. 11:1409. 1803). 



' For a bibliography of this group see an article by Waugh in Gard. Chron. 24:465. 1898. 



'Koch, K. Deut. Obst. 149. 1876. 



* Schneider, C. K. Hand, der Laub. 630. 1906. 



