226 
The only plum on Long Island of value for food is the beach 

plum (Prunus marituna), characteristic of the coastal sands, and 
bearing vellowish to dull purple fruit about a half inch in diam- 
‘he Plummes of the Countrey be better for Plumbs than 
jlacke and vellow, about the 
or 
eter. 
the Cherries be for Cherries; they be 
bignesse of a Damson, of a reasonable good taste.” [| Wm. Wood, 
in New England Prospect, 1634.| Thus the cherries were nothing 
to boast about, and the reader will probably recognize immediately 
the well-known choke-cherry (Prunus virginiana) in \Wood’s de- 
scription, ‘The Cherrie trees veeld great store of Cherries which 
— 
pene 
grow on clusters like grapes; they be much smaller than our [Eng- 
lish Cherrie, nothing neare so good if they be not fully r ipe, they 
furre the mouth that the tongue will cleave to the roofe.” The 
wild black cherry or rum cherry (Prunus serotina) served 
variety of purposes, infusions of the bark being used for medici- 
nal purposes, and the fruit in making cherry brandy, or flavoring 
rum. The wood was of exceptional value in furniture construc- 
tion. melanchier stolonifera, known locally on Cape Cod as 
” might be classified here, though more commonly 
swamp cherry ” 
known as shad-bush or June-berry. Since the fruits are some- 
times used for making pies on Cape Cod, there is some probability 
that they had a similar use on eastern Long Island. 
lor final consideration, there is the group of nut-bearing trees, 
which gave the settlers opportunity for rumination during the 
winter months. Probably of greatest importance was the black 
walnut (/uglans nigra), a tree often of gigantic proportions, a 
specimen at Roslyn,' Long Island, mentioned by Miss Flint (p. 
29), beg “one hundred and fifty feet in height with a circum- 
In addition to wood of outstanding value 
” 
_— 
ference of thirty feet. 
in furniture making, 1t produced a hard nut nearly resembling the 
English walnut in shape, but with a more oily kernel. The butter- 
nut (/uglans cinerea), is less frequent on Long Island than to 
the northward, but it supplied, in addition to the nuts, a strong 
and durable yellow dye much used in the early days, and further- 
more produced a sap from which sugar could be made (according 
to Bigelow, p. 118). Of the three hickories present on Long Is- 
emery 
1 This tree, which grew near the home of William Cullen Bryant, is il- 
: Ie Ls Die 875 
lustrated by IXmerson, l.c., Ed. 2, vo 
