_The Damsons._—The description given the species fits this division of it closely, the differentiating character for the fruit, if any, being oval fruits, while the Bullaces, most nearly like these, are round. The origin of the Damsons, as we have seen, was in Syria and near the ancient city, Damascus, their written history dating back several centuries before Christ. This plum has escaped from cultivation in nearly all the temperate parts of Europe and more or less in the eastern United States, the wild forms often passing under other names, as the Wild, Wheat, Spilling, Donkey, Ass, Hog and Horse plums. The true Damsons have a fine spicy taste, which makes them especially desirable for cooking and preserving, but a very decided astringency of the skin makes most of the varieties of Damsons undesirable to eat out of the hand; this astringency largely disappears with cooking or after a light frost. Nearly all Damsons are sour, though a few sweet Insititias are placed in this group. Since the seeds grow readily and the sprouts are very manageable, the Damsons, with the other Insititias, are much used as stocks upon which to work other plums, especially the less hardy and less thrifty Domesticas. Although less used now than formerly for stocks it is a question if these plums, or some of their near kin, do not make the best obtainable stocks. There seems to be much difference in the varieties of Insititia in their capacity to send up sprouts. The forms which send up the fewest sprouts are much the best for use as stocks. Curiously enough, the Damsons are highly esteemed now only by the Americans and English, being grown much less at present in Continental Europe than a century or two ago. Late pomological works and nurserymen’s catalogs from others than the English or Americans barely mention these plums.