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FRUITS IN THEIR SEASON. 103
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* Xii. The Pi/Um. Fkom The Wave-Hollowed...
a very dark kind , but more curious tlian excellent , is believed to have arisen from the _foiindation of an apricot-tree with the pollen of the
Myrobalanus , or cherry-plum , which , in buds , leaves , and blossoms , greatlresembles the former tree ; and indeed , as London observes ,
" there y can be no doubt but that an endless number of hybrids , varying in their leaves , blossoms , and fruits , might be produced by
fecundating the blossom of the plum with the pollen of the almond , peachapricotand cherry ; and though some may be disposed to
assign , little value , to these kinds of productions , yet it must not be forgotten that almost all the cultivated plants of most value to man
have been produced by some kind of artificial process . Experiments of this kind , therefore , _oiight never to be _discoLiraged . What
culture has done -we know ; but what it may yet accomplish is concealed in the womb of time . "
The plum appears always to have existed in France , but , unlike the cherryit is a tree not of the forest but of the field , and
Duhamel disputes , the paternity of the sloe as contrary to analogy , considering that such of the domestic kinds as have not been
imported black or from whit abroad e damask are plum more * or likel from y to the have " cerisette originated / 7 all from of which the
are indigenous to that country , than from the one which we admit as the type of the race . The two former are rather larger and
rounder than our damson , and of a sweeter but more insipid taste ; and the latter , being small , nearly round , and of a pale violet red ,
bears a strong resemblance to a cherry , in which respect , howeve . r , it is surpassed by the Canadian plum , brought from Canada to France
in 1750 , and which has yellow flesh and a fiery red skin , quite free from bloom , thus forming as decided a link between the j ) luin and
the cherry as the downy-coated apricot does between the plum and the peach , the drupaceous fruits being thus all specially found in
a common bond of brotherhood . In France the lum , is looked on far less as an article for
immep diate consumption than as a provision for winter—a fact so thoroughly acknowledged here that the very term _" French plum" seems
necessarily to imply a dried fruit . The most recherche preparation which comes to us under that title is that made from the large
yellow Brignole plums , grown chiefly near the town of that name in Provence . When these are fully ripe the trees are slightly shaken ,
and the rich produce gently descends , Jupiter-like , in a shower of goldupon cloths spread to receive it , and is set aside in a dry place
, until the next day , when the victims are condemned to be deprived of their skins . As it is recorded that one of the champions of
Christendom meekly accepted his doom of death on condition that it should be inflicted by the hands of a virgin , we may suppose that
if the fate of Marsyas can possibly be made acceptable , it may be so to these martyrs of _Bxignole , when it is ordained that they are to
easil * y The , and title the damas flesh , of or which damask separates , is given freel by y the from French the stone to p . lums which split
Fruits In Their Season. 103
FRUITS IN THEIR SEASON . 103
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1861, page 103, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101861/page/31/
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