690 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III 



placed in an oven, from which the bread has been just drawn. The door of 

 the oven is closed, and the crevices are stopped round it with clay, or dry 

 grass. An hour afterwards, the plums are taken out, and the oven is again 

 shut, with a cup of water in it, for about two hours. When the water is so 

 warm as just to be able to bear the finger in it, the prunes are again placed in 

 the oven, and left there for twenty-four hours, when the operation is finished, 

 and they are put loosely into small, long, and rather deep boxes, for sale. 

 The common sorts are gathered by shaking the trees ; but the finer kinds, for 

 making French plums, must be gathered in the morning, before the rising of 

 the sun, by taking hold of the stalk between the thumb and finger, without 

 touching the fruit ; and laid gently on a bed of vine leaves in a basket. When 

 the baskets are filled, without the plums touching each other, they are re- 

 moved to the fruit-room, where they are left for two or three days exposed 

 to the sun and air ; after which the same process is employed as for the others ; 

 and in this way the delicate bloom is retained on the fruit, even when quite dry. 



Zwetschen Wasser and Raid. Both these liquors closely resemble kirsch- 

 wasser ; and the former is prepared in the same manner. Raki is made in 

 Hungary, by fermenting apples ground or crushed with bruised plums, and 

 distilling the liquor. The spirit produced is said to be very agreeable to the 

 taste, and, though not quite so strong, much more wholesome than brandy. 

 In the south of France, an excellent spirit is obtained from the bruised pulp 

 and kernels of plums, fermented with honey and flour, by distillation in the 

 usual manner. 



Soil, Situation, Propagation, fyc. The plum prefers a free loamy soil, some- 

 what calcareous, and a situation open and exposed to the sun. The ornamental 

 and fruit-bearing kinds are almost invariably propagated by grafting or budding ; 

 and this is generally performed on stocks of the muscle, St. Julien, or any of 

 the free-growing-plums ; or on the Mirabelle plum, when the plants are in- 

 tended to form dwarfs. The stocks may either be raised from seeds, treated as 

 recommended for those of the sloe, or from layers. Plants are obtained, by 

 the latter mode, in a very simple and expeditious manner. The shoots of the 

 preceding year, which have risen from the stools, are pegged down to the 

 ground quite flat, and covered to the depth of an inch with soil. The entire 

 shoot being thus covered and kept moist, there is an equal stimulus applied 

 to all the buds on it ; each of which produces a vertical shoot, a foot or two 

 in length, according to the soil and the season ; and each of these shoots, when 

 taken off in the November following, is found to have abundance of roots. 

 The branches which were laid down to produce these shoots are then cut 

 off close to the stool ; and the shoots produced from the centre of the stool, 

 during summer, are, during winter, or early in spring, laid down in their turn, 

 as above described. This is the practice in the Goldworth and other nur- 

 series, where stocks are raised in immense quantities to supply the general 

 demand of the trade. 



* 4. P. ca'ndicans Balb. The whitish-leaved Plum Tree. 



404 





Identification. Balb. Cat. Taur., 1813. p. 62. ; ? Willd. Enum. Suppl, p. 



Dec. Prod., 2. p. 533.; Don's Mill., 2. p. 498. 

 Engraving. Our figs. 404. 405. 



Spec. Char., fyc. Branches pubescent. 

 Flowers 2 or 3 together, upon short 

 pubescent peduncles. Calyx bell- 

 shaped. Leaves broadly ovate, 



► whitish beneath. Stipules of the 

 length of the petiole, very narrow, 

 and cut in a toothed manner. {Dec. 

 Prod., ii. p. 532.) A shrub, growing 

 to the height of 6 ft. or 8 ft.; in- 

 troduced in 1820, and producing its white flowers in April. 

 It is not known of what country it is a native. 



