DESSERT PLUMS. 



209 



flavour, especially when grown on a wall ; but it is also very 

 good in many places from a standard or bush. In favourable 

 seasons this Plum bears abundantly and makes a delicious pre- 

 serve. It is not, however, profitable to grow as an industrial 

 Plum, as it has a very tender skin, and, unless gathered when 

 quite green, will not bear carriage. 



The next Gage Plum to ripen is the Early Transparent, or 

 Early Apricot, so named by my friend Dr. Hogg, but lately 

 certificated under the name of Early Transparent. I had for- 

 gotten for the moment that it had been named the Early Apricot 

 in the " Fruit Manual.'" This is also a Plum of very high merit ; 

 the flesh is delicious, separating freely from the stone, which is 

 very small. There is no doubt that this sort possesses valuable 

 qualities for drying, as it is a veritable sweetmeat. It is a profuse 

 and abundant bearer, and is hardy, as I have heard my friend 

 Mr. Pearson speak of it as succeeding well in Nottinghamshire. 



Another Plum of the same race, the Denniston's Superb, 

 is a valuable dessert Plum of great fertility, and this and 

 McLaughlin's Green Gage complete the list of August Gages. 



In September the Gages are continued by the typical Green 

 Gage, the Purple Gage, the Bryanston Gage (a large and ex- 

 cellent variation of the Green Gage), the Reine Claude du Comte 

 Althan, or Eeine Claude du Comte Atthems, Guthrie's Late 

 Green, Transparent Gage, Woolston Black, Golden Transparent 

 and Late Transparent. The last-named has recently received a 

 first-class certificate from the Royal Horticultural Society, and 

 will, I think, be very largely grown in the Colonies for drying, 

 the flesh being very firm and rich, and the stone very small and 

 non-adherent. Those Gages are, I think, the best which ripen 

 in September, and they will satisfy the most fastidious amateur. 



The Reine Claude de Bavay — of which Boddaert's Green 

 Gage and Reine Claude de Brahy are varieties — ripens early in 

 October, and is succeeded by Coe's Golden Drop, which, though 

 differing in form from the Gages, is said to have been raised from 

 a Green Gage impregnated with the pollen of the Yellow Magnum 

 Bonum, and must therefore be classed with them. It is a late 

 dessert Plum of high quality. 



The sorts I have enumerated are, I think, sufficient for the 

 fruit garden. There are many other variations of the Gage 



