We learn from the Touinbouw Flora that the Butch have succeeded in fruiting the Japanese Apricot, called by botanists Prunus (or Armeniaea) Mume A colored figure in the same work gives so good an idea of the plant that, as an undoubtedly distinct species of hardy fruit tree, the time has arrived for bringing it into notice in this country.

The first account we have of this Eastern fruit is to be found in KaEmpfer, who calls it Bai, or Ume and Ume bos. He calls it a wild spiny Plum with a large fruit, and adds that the fruits preserved in the lees of saeki or Japanese beer (Ceretisia japonenrii), are exported to India and China. In 1885 Siebold and Zuccarini, in their work on Japanese plants, entered into particulars. We give the substance of the statement made by these authors, who call the plant Mume end give Bai as its Chinese name. "The Mume is found through all the empire of Japan, but thrives best in the northern parts, where it grows fifteen or twenty feet high, and much resembles an European Apricot tree. When wild or planted in hedgerows it is a close branching bush, from eight to twelve feet high. It is much cultivated for the sake of its flowers as well as its fruits. In good seasons the tree is in flower in the beginning of February, and is then used for decorating the altars and dwellings of the Japanese, as a symbol of the return of spring.

In the wild plant the flowers are white when cultivated they vary through every shade of rose and red. even becoming greenish or yellowish- Those most highly valued are the double sorte, which are used for dwarfing as well as for planting in gardens Several hundred such varietieas were collected in the garden of the Prince of Tsikusen. The fondness of the Japanese for dwarf trees is well known, and this Mume is one of the plants most need for the purpose. In 1826, a dealer offered for sale a specimen in flower which was scarcely three inches high. This marvel of gardening was growing in a little red varnished box of three stages, like the drug-boxes which the Japanese carry at their belt The upper stage was occupied by the little Mume, the middle stage by a Spruce Fir equally small, and the lowest stage by a Bamboo not more than an inch and a half high, As for the fruits, they ripen in June; when quite ripe they are insipid, for which reason they are salted down when green, like Cucumbers, and are eaten as a vegetable with rice and fish. Much, however, as they are esteemed by the Japanese, Europeans do not relish their sour bitter taste.

They are usually colored red, when salted, by adding the leaves of Ocymum erispum (a kind of curled Basil) The juice of the green fruit is taken as a refreshing beverage in fevers; and is regarded as indispensable to the preparation of the beautiful and delicate red dye prepared from the Safflower".

It will be seen from this account that we must not reckon the Japanese Apricot as a dessert fruit, unless in the form of a preparation like that of the Olive, for which it seems to be a Japanese substitute. We would therefore guard our readers against being seduced into the purchase of it by a fine-sounding name. From the figure in the Tuinbowo Flora, the fruit would seem to have much resemblance to the little early Apricots which the French call Alberges - pale straw-color, with a little salmon-red on one side and near the stone. But, although no hope can be entertained of its becoming of any value at table, it is very possible that it may become valuable as a stock for the cultivated Apricot. The climate from which it comes is very severe, and it is certainly a true Apricot Therefore we have undoubted hardiness on the one hand, and a great constitutional similarity on the other. In the latter respect, it ought to be much better suited to the Apricot than the Plum stock - which is apt to disagree with its Apricot scion - or than the Apricot itself, which is too tender to be buried underground in our wet and cold winters. As soon as the Mume becomes cheap enough to be so employed, we would recommend it to the notice of the nurserymen.

In the meanwhile let us guard the public against imagining that, because it is really an Apricot, it is therefore worth growing for dessert Such value in horticulture as it possesses, beyond what is now suggested, is wholly confined to its effect as a tree that blossoms at the same time as the Almond. - Gardeners' Chronicle.