The Red Mirabelle frequently referred to in pomological works is _Prunus cerasifera_, and the name is wrongly so used, for if not first applied to the several varieties of Insititia it now by almost universal usage belongs to these plums. The origin of the word, as now commonly used, dates back over two centuries, being found in the pomological treatises of the Seventeenth Century. The assumption is that Mirabelle is derived from _mirable_ meaning wonderful, and the name was first so used by the French. Unfortunately the Mirabelles are hardly known in America. These plums have so many good qualities of tree and fruit that American pomology would be greatly enriched if the best Mirabelle varieties were grown in both home and commercial orchards. They should be used in cookery much as are the Damsons, which they surpass for some purposes. _St. Juliens._—The St. Julien that the writer has seen in American and European nurseries is unmistakably an Insititia. At one time St. Julien stocks were used almost exclusively in New York nurseries, and few large plum orchards are free from trees which have through accident to the cion grown from the stock. Such trees bear fruit so like the Damson that one is warranted in saying that the two are identical, and that St. Julien is but a name used for a Damson when the latter is employed as a stock. The fruit is sweetish with a taste identical with that of the sweet Damsons. Plum-growers who have had experience with plums on several stocks are almost united in the opinion that the St. Julien is the best of all for the Domesticas, at least. St. Julien stocks were formerly imported in great numbers from France, where it is still largely grown for European use. The name seems to have come in use in France more than a century ago, but why given or to what particular Insititia applied does not appear. There is, however, a distinct variety or type of Insititia used by the French in producing stocks, for French pomologists advise careful selection of mother-plants for the production of the young trees by suckers or layers, and caution growers of stocks in no case to use seeds which bring twiggy, spiny and crooked stocks.[73] St. Julien plums are seemingly nowhere grown at present for their fruits. There are several ornamental forms of plums which are given specific names by European horticulturists, mentioned in the last paragraph in the discussion of the Domestica plums, which some writers place, in part at least, with the Insititias. These plums are not found in America and it is impossible to place them with certainty in either of the two species upon the contradictory evidence of the Europeans. =3.= =PRUNUS SPINOSA= Linnaeus.