Hogg[41] says the Reine Claudes were brought from Greece to Italy and cultivated in the latter country under the name Verdochia. Hogg does not give his authority and his statement cannot be verified in any other of the modern European pomologies to which the authors of this work have had access. The very complete history of the agricultural and horticultural plants of Italy[42] by Dr. Antonio Targioni-Tozzetti does not give this name. Be that as it may, some variety of this group was introduced into England under the name Verdoch and at an early date, for in 1629 Parkinson[43] enumerates it in his sixty sorts describing it as “a great, fine, green shining plum fit to preserve.” Rea[44] in 1676 also lists and describes it as does Ray,[45] 1688. It is doubtful if Parkinson, Ray and Rea had the true Reine Claude, however, for the Verdacchio, according to Gallesio,[46] one of the best Italian authorities, is an obovate-shaped fruit while the Claudia is a round one. Gallesio says the Claudia was cultivated in many places about Genoa under the name Verdacchio rotondo; about Rome and through Modenese, for a long time, as the Mammola; in Piedmont as the Claudia; and in Tuscany as the Susina Regina. Now (1839) he says, “it is known in all Italy under the name Claudia, and has become so common as to be found in abundance in the gardens and in the markets.” The name Reine Claude, all writers agree, was given in honor of Queen Claude, wife of Francis I, the fruit having been introduced into France during the reign of that monarch which began in 1494 and ended 1547, these dates fixing as accurately as possible the origin of the name. Green Gage, the commonest synonym of either the Reine Claude group or of the variety, comes from the fact that this fruit was introduced into England by the Gage family. Phillips[47] gives the following account of its introduction into England: “The Gage family, in the last century, procured from the monastery of the Chartreuse at Paris, a collection of fruit trees. When these trees arrived at the Mansion of Hengrave Hall, the tickets were safely affixed to all of them, excepting only to the Reine Claude, which had either not been put on, or had been rubbed off in the package. The gardener, therefore, being ignorant of the name, called it, when it first bore fruit, the Green Gage.”