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KIRKE’S PLUM.
Kirke’s Plum. Hort. Soc. Fruit Cat. no. 150.
One of the best Plums that are known in this
country. It is very handsome, a most abundant
bearer both as a standard and upon a west or
east wall, and its flavour is scarcely inferior to that
of the Green Gage.
It was first brought into notice by Mr. Kirke,
whose name it bears, and was met with by that gentleman
in a singular way. Passing along the street
one day, he was struck with the beauty of a
basket of Plums in a fruiterer’s window. Upon
tasting them, he was surprised to find that they
excelled in flavour any purple Plum with which
he was acquainted. The fruiterer had received
them from a gardener in the country, who, it afterwards*
appeared, had procured the variety from the
Garden of a gentleman in his neighbourhood; and
to that Garden it was said to have been introduced
from some foreign country.
We have in vain sought to trace it in the
writings of foreign pomological authors; and we
therefore figure it for the sake of making it
known through the means of this publication: a
Plum as hardy and prolific as the Orleans, as handsome
as the Damask, and as good as the Green
Gage, cannot be too extensively cultivated.