[53] 



VI. An Account of a New Variety of Plum. By Thomas 

 Andrew Knight, Esq. F. R. S. President. 



Read July 6, 1830. 



Th e Plum is generally supposed by British Horticulturists to be a 

 fruit, which can only be brought to our tables during the summer 

 and autumn, unless it be as a conserve, or in a dried state ; and 

 the samples which we receive from France of Plums in the latter 

 state, are not calculated to make a favourable impression respecting 

 the merits of the dried fruit. The defects of these do not, how - 

 ever, properly belong to the species of Plum, but to the variety 

 used, which does not contain sufficient saccharine matter, (as the 

 taste of the dried fruit sufficiently proves) to render it capable of 

 being preserved unless in a dry, or nearly, a dry state. 



I stated in the Transactions of this Society some years ago, that 

 a Plum of Coe's Golden Drop, having been accidentally left in a 

 cupboard in the house of Mr. Whitley of Brompton, had been 

 found perfectly sound in the following spring ; and that having in 

 consequence of this circumstance obtained a couple of trees of that 

 variety from him, I had preserved, without any peculiar care, some 

 of the fruit in the highest state of perfection till the middle of De- 

 cember. The report of that Plum having so long remained sound 

 alone induced me to cultivate it; for Mr. Whitley did not at all 

 recommend it as a good fruit, and it was from me that he, and I 

 believe, the public, received the first account of its excellence. 

 The quantity of saccharine matter, which Coe's Golden Drop Plum 

 contains, when in its highest state of maturity and perfection, is 

 very great ; and so far that variety appeared to me to be well cal- 



