1879.] 
CHOICE PLUMS.—GLAZED OE UNGLAZED FLOWER-POTS. 
57 
Prince Albert, Flower of tbe Day, and the 
old Splendens. Newer varieties are added 
slowly, and with great care. 
Very large bushy plants of these varieties 
are grown in pots, in houses specially suited to 
them. The plants are repotted as soon as they 
go out of bloom ; and after they are shifted, 
they are kept growing to set their buds for the 
next season, and are then hardened-off in the 
usual way. 
The earliest-flowered varieties are pushed on 
early in the autumn, and ere October is over 
the first-fruits of the floral harvest are sent to 
market.—E. Dean, Ealing. 
CHOICE PLUMS. 
[Plate 488.] 
ITTLE need be said in recommendation 
of the two varieties of plums repre¬ 
sented in the accompanying plate. 
Those who know anything of fruits will recog¬ 
nise in the names of those here figured the 
designations of two standard varieties ; but 
many of our readers—amateur cultivators, or 
others whose experience is but limited—may 
be glad to have some means at hand by which 
to recognise them, and to such as these, Mr. 
Fitch’s portraits will be useful. 
The Eeine Claude de Bayay (Fig. 1), 
also called Monstrueuse de Bavay, belongs to 
the race of Green Gages, and is a dessert plum of 
exquisite flavour. The young wood is smooth- 
barked. Dr. Hogg describes it as large, 
roundish, flattened at both ends (roundish- 
ovoid, according to M. Thomas), greenish-yellow 
in colour, mottled and streaked with green, 
and covered with a delicate white bloom. The 
stalk is about half an inch long, inserted in a 
small cavity. It has a yellow, tender, and 
very juicy flesh, which separates freely from 
the stone, and has a remarkably rich sugary 
flavour. The fruit is ripe at the end of Sep¬ 
tember and beginning of October. 
The variety represented at Fig. 2 is the 
McLaughlin, an American Plum of first-rate 
quality, raised by Mr. J. McLaughlin, of Ban¬ 
gor, Maine. This also belongs to the Green 
Gage race, and has the j’oung wood smooth. 
It is a vigorous-growing and free-bearing sort. 
The fruit of this variety is large, roundish- 
oblate, the diameter exceeding the depth; it 
has a thin, tender, deep golden-coloured skin, 
dotted and speckled on the exposed side with 
crimson, and covered with a thin bloom. Tho 
stalk is longer than in the Reine Claude de 
Bavag., being three-quarters of an inch long. 
The flesh is firm and adhering to the stone, 
very juicy, with a luscious flavour. It ripens 
at the end of August. 
Mr. Barron observes {Florist, 1870, 201) 
that the colour and texture of flesh more nearly 
resemble those of the Jefferson than of any other 
variety. Like the Jefferson, it is a clingstone, 
which is a slight disadvantage. The fruit is, 
however, very different,—larger, and possessing 
more of the Green Gage flavour. It is a robust- 
growing variety, and bears freely. For orchard- 
house cultivation, and for pot-culture, this 
variety is exceedingly well adapted, as it suc¬ 
ceeds perfectly under these conditions. 
In both these varieties, the fruit is of the 
highest quality. M. Thomas, in his Gidde 
Pratique, designates the McLaughlin as a hardy 
and vigorous-growing plum of the first quality, 
while the Reine Claude de Barag. he says, is 
of medium vigour, but very fertile. McIntosh 
notes that the fruit of the latter keeps long 
on the tree, and that it is a very fitting sort for 
the orchard-house or late plum-house.—T. 
Moore. 
GLAZED OE UNGLAZED 
FLOWEK-POTS. 
S N ordinary life-time has gone by since I 
took up this idea and worked it out. 
It met with some opposition at the 
time, by a certain class of cultivators, who held 
the doctrine that the porous pot admitted air 
to the roots, which the glazed pot did not, for¬ 
getting that both air and water had nothing to 
hinder them from getting to the roots of the 
plants, if they were so disposed. My flower¬ 
pots had an ornamental saucer to receive drain¬ 
age-water, so that plants in such glazed pots 
and with such glazed saucers could be set 
upon any table without damping it. Moreover, 
each pot was fitted with a colander-bottom 
whose small holes were in the place of the one 
large hole of ordinary pots, by which contriv¬ 
ance they wanted no crock in the bottom, 
thereby giving more room for soil. Who¬ 
ever has had to do with a large establish¬ 
ment, where some thousands of pots have to be 
washed, will readily grant that the getting-up 
of the material for potting is no small affair— 
even the crocks take time to prepare; but when 
w'C have a number of plants in pots, and the 
