The red-finned roach, the silver coated eel, Till sea-like grown, they now disdain all bound, DESCRIPTION OF FRUIT TREES. [Continued from p. 192.] PLUM TREE (prunus domestica).-This is generally a middling sized tree, growing to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and branching out into a spreading head. It delights in a lofty exposure, and is not injurious to pastures where it has been planted. The cultivated garden plums are all derived from this species. The garden and orchard kinds are very numerous, differing in the form, taste, colour, and substance of the fruit. The following are the most remarkable:-The White Primordian, a small yellowcoloured mealy plum, ripens in the latter end of July or beginning of August; a single tree of this 'Ove nei falsi flutti Il bel Tamigi amareggiando intoppa. ARIOSTO. sort will be sufficient for a common sized garden. The Morocco, which is a middle sized plum, has good flesh, and ripens about the beginning of August. The Little Black Damask or Damson, is covered with a light violet bloom; the juice is richly sugared; the flesh parts from the stone, and the tree is a good bearer. The Orleans plum is well known, and is planted generally, because it bears plentifully, by those who supply our markets with fruit; but is, in fact, an inferior kind of plum. The Egg plum is a large oval-shaped fruit, of a yellowish colour, powdered over with a delicate white bloom; the pulp is firm, and adheres closely to the stone; the juice is of an acid taste, which renders it unpleasant to be eaten raw, though it is very good for baking or converting into a sweetmeat: it is a great bearer, and the fruit ripens in the middle of September. The Apricot plum is a large round yellow-coloured fruit, powdered over with a white bloom; the pulp is firm and dry, sweet tasted, comes clean from the stone, and ripens at the end of September. The Dauphiness plum, a name generally confounded with that of the Green Gage: there are three or four different sorts sold for it, but they are all inferior; it is one of the best plums in England, and is produced in large quantities. The Royal plum is a large fruit of an oval shape, drawing to a point next the stalk; the outside is of a light red colour, powdered over with a whitish bloom; the flesh adheres to the stone, and has a fine sugary juice; it ripens in the middle of September. The Cherry plum is generally about the size of the Oxheart Cherry, round and red; the blossoms come out very early in the spring, at the same time as those of the almond, and, when intermixed with the latter, present a most beautiful spectacle. The Muscle plum is not much esteemed, hence the tree is principally used for stocks. The Green Gage is the finest eating plum we have; it ripens in August: the best are tinged with purple. We must now notice the Bullace tree, which is another of the same genus; it grows twelve or fifteen feet high, with thorny branches; it varies with black and wax-coloured fruit, and with some that is red, and has a bitter unpleasant taste, growing in the hedges of Essex and Suffolk: the acid of this esteemed fruit is so tempered by sweetness and roughness as not to be unpleasant, especially after it is mellowed by frost: a conserve is prepared by mixing the pulp with thrice its weight of sugar; an infusion of the flowers, sweetened with sugar, is also often given as a mild aperient for children. The Black Thorn, or Sloe tree, is one of the same genus as all the rest of the plum kind; it is a crooked shrub, growing about six feet high; but the fruit is so sharp and austere, that it requires the severe action of frost to mellow and render it eatable, and it then becomes an agreeable variety. Of all these various sorts of the plum kind, it may be remarked, that when eaten in small quantities and in a ripe state, they are not unwholesome; but when taken in large quantities, and especially if unripe, they are very deleterious. In a medicinal point of view they are considered as emollient and cooling, especially the French prunes or dried plums imported from Marseilles, which are the most wholesome of all the dried fruits. The smallness of all these trees renders their wood of little value except for fuel. SEPTEMBER. SEPTEMBER is composed of septem, seven, and the termination ber, like lis in Aprilis, Quintilis, Sextilis. This rule will also apply to the three following months, Octo-ber, Novem-ber, Decem-ber. Our Saxon ancestors called it Gerst-monat, for that barT ley which that moneth commonly yeelded, was antiently called gerst.' Remarkable Days In SEPTEMBER 1819. GILES, or Ægidius, was born at Athens, but, after he had disposed of his patrimony in charitable uses, came to France in the year 715. He lived two years with Cæsarius, Bishop of Arles, and afterwards retired into solitude. *1. 1729.-SIR RICHARD STEELE died. To him we owe the origin of that most useful and entertaining branch of literature, Periodical Publications. His Tatler,' the first number of which appeared April 12, 1709, was the parent not only of the Spectator and Guardian, but of all those other numerous and excellent works upon the same plan, which so much improved the taste and morals of that and succeeding generations. To Sir Richard Steele, also, we have great obligations as a dramatic writer. His Conscious Lovers, divested of its indelicacy, is one of the most interesting and amusing comedies in the English language. 2. LONDON BURNT. The fire of London broke out on Sunday morning, September 2d, 1666, O.S.; and being impelled by strong winds, raged with irresistible fury nearly four days and nights; nor was it entirely mastered till the fifth morning after it began. This most destructive conflagration commenced at the house of one Farryner, a baker, in Pudding-lane, near [New] Fish-street Hill, and within ten houses of Thames-street, into which it spread in a few hours; nearly the whole of the contiguous buildings being of timber, lath, and plaster, and the whole neighbourhood presenting little else than closely confined passages and narrow alleys. The fire quickly spread, and was not to be conquered by any human means. For an interesting account of the fire, written by an eye-witness, see T. T. for 1816, p. 249-258. 7.-SAINT EUNERCHUS. Eunerchus, or Evortius, was Bishop of Orleans, and present at the council of Valentia, A.D. 375. The circumstances of his election to this see were considered as miraculous, and principally ascribed to a dove, which alighted upon his head in consequence of the prayers of the electors. 8.-NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN MARY. A concert of angels having being heard in the air to solemnize this important event, the festival was appointed by Pope Servius about the year 695. Innocent IV honoured this feast with an octave in 1244, and Gregory XI, about the year 1370, with a vigil. *8. 1656.-BISHOP HALL Died, æt. 82, A prelate, who, being cast upon the evil days of Charles I, suffered much from the persecutions of the rebellious parliament. Some notion of their proceedings, upon the passing of the ordinance for sequestering notorious delinquents,' in April 1643, he being then Bishop of Norwich, may be formed from his own brief account. The sequestrators sent certain men appointed by them (whereof one had been burned in the hand) to appraise all the goods that were in my house; which they accordingly executed with all diligent severity, not leaving so much as a dozen of trenchers, or my children's pictures out of their curious inventory: yea, they would have apprized our very wearing-apparel, had not some of them declared their opinion to the contrary. These goods, both library and household stuff of all kinds, were appointed to be exposed to public sale; but, in the meantime, Mrs. Goodwin, a religious good gentlewoman, whom yet we had never known nor seen, being moved with compassion, very kindly offered to lay down to the sequestrators |