59. WHITE MAGNUM BONUM. Langley, p. 95. t. 25. fig. 6. Miller, No. 11.

White Mogul.

Ib.

White Holland. Ib.

Egg Plum.

Ib.

Imperiale Blanche. Duhamel, No. 35.

oval.

Branches long, smooth. Fruit of the largest size, Skin yellow, covered with a thin white bloom. Flesh yellow, firm, closely adhering to the stone. Juice acid, not fit to be eaten raw, but excellent for sweetmeats. Stone oval, lance-pointed.

Ripe the beginning and middle of September.

It ripened at Twickenham, in 1727, on a south-east wall, Aug. 20.

60. WHITE PERDRIGON. Langley, p. 92. t. 23. fig. 5. Miller, No. 9.

Perdrigon Blanc. Duhamel, No. 30. t. 8.

Branches downy. Fruit middle-sized, somewhat oblong, enlarged towards the apex and tapering a little towards the stalk; about one inch and a quarter long, and the same in diameter. Stalk three quarters of an inch long. Skin pale yellow, full of small white specks, with a few red spots on the sunny side, and covered with a thin white bloom. Flesh pale yellow, separating Juice rich and saccharine. Stone

clean from the stone.

small, lanceolate.

Ripe the beginning of September.

This, as well as the other Perdrigons, is too tender to bear in this country as an open standard, or even in espalier; it should be planted against an east or south-east wall: on these aspects all the September plums ripen better than on any other, and are more certain in their produce.

A Selection of Plums for a small Garden in the Southern and Midland Counties of England.

Northern Counties of England, and Southern of Scotland.

Plums are propagated by budding and grafting upon the Brussels and the Common Plum stock. The former is principally employed for such sorts as are intended to be worked standard high; it is used also for dwarfs.

The Common stock is used likewise for both standards and dwarfs; but then the former are worked below, the same as for dwarfs, and the strongest of the plants are allowed to run up for standards.

The Brussels stock is a very useful one for the nurseryman, being a vigorous grower; if it is planted out one year, and then cut down to the ground, it will throw up a straight, smooth, handsome shoot, six feet high the first year, on which Apricots and Plums may be budded standard high the following summer, and they will make handsome plants at the end of another year; but this excess of vigour in the Brussels stock is not in favour of its durability..

In raising standard Plums, however, I have found it the best way to bud them upon the Common stock, nine inches from the ground. If the stocks are strong and in health, and upon a good soil, they will throw up the vigorous growing sorts standard high the first year;

those which are of a more moderate growth will attain that height the following year. For dwarfs, as I have observed before, those which are obtained by grafting are to be preferred.

The Common stock possesses sufficient vigour, if planted on a good soil, to throw up its shoot standard high the first year after cutting down, and may be budded the second either with Apricots or the weaker growing Plums: these make not only handsome but durable standards.

DAMSONS AND BULLACE.

The Prune Damsons and White Bullace should be budded upon the Muscle stock, as they succeed much better upon it than upon any other. If budded nine inches from the ground, upon vigorous stocks, they will grow five or six feet high the first year, and make fine standards the year following; or they may be budded - standard high upon stocks which have been cut down for the purpose, the same as directed for standard Peaches and Nectarines.

Pruning and Training.

Open Standards.

Open standards of Plums should be chosen, such as are straight and clean in their stems, with regular heads of four equally strong well-placed shoots. If the trees have been planted in the autumn, they will, by the following April, have made fresh roots, and their buds will begin to push; they must at this time be headed down to three or four inches, after which they will furnish three or four others from each shoot.

If, however, at the next winter pruning a sufficient

number cannot be selected to form the head, the best must be selected and cut down again as before, which, if the tree be in a state of health, must furnish abundance for the purpose. The best of those being selected, they must be allowed to grow at their full length, without ever shortening them again, unless through some accident there should be a vacancy in the head which requires to be filled up.

Standards, when thus fully established, require nothing further than to be looked over from time to time, in order to remove any superfluous shoots, or such others as may, by their further growth, be likely to injure others.

Espaliers.

Espalier Plums are to be formed precisely upon the same principle as espalier Pears, having a central upright stem with horizontal branches issuing from each side; these should be trained at nine inches apart, except in such sorts as are of a very slender wiry growth, in which they may be somewhat nearer.

The branches of Plums require to be continued at length, without ever shortening the leading shoot, and their spurs should be managed as directed for Pears, except in the first pruning in the summer, when the foreright and side shoots must be shortened to one inch instead of two, as they are not so likely to throw out additional shoots from these artificial spurs in the same

season.

Some of the strongest, however, of these spurs will be likely to make a second shoot, which must, in the second pruning, be cut off below the eye whence it originated; never shortening a second shoot like the first, as a repetition of this alone causes the spurs, in every description of espalier and wall tree, to be what are termed bushheaded, instead of having any tendency to acquire a