106 THE PLUM IN KANSAS. 



the attempt in this country to apply them definitely has resulted in 

 confusion. It may also be said that the Satsuma or blood class ap- 

 pears to comprise several varieties. The Sumomo class is character- 

 ized by small, globular fruit, with a firm, sweet flesh, ripening very 

 early. The Botans or Botankios are larger and later round plums, 

 while the Hattans or Hattankios are conical. The terms are applied 

 loosely even in Japan, and it does not seem to be worth while to en- 

 deavor to retain them here, particularly as there appear to be all man- 

 ner of gradations between the types of the different groups. There 

 has been some misconception of the application of these terms, and 

 it is often said that they refer to color rather than to shape.* 



There are various colors in each of these classes of plums, from 

 deep puri)le to light red, yellow, and nearly white. The Hattankio 

 class seems to be the commonest in this country, being represented 

 by the Kelsey, Burbank, Satsuma, Abundance, Berckmans, Normand, 

 Kerr. The Botans are represented here chiefly by Ogon and Willard, 

 while the Sumomos seem to be known only in the little, cherry-like 

 Berger, which passes under a variety of names. The Japanese plums 

 might be divided into two general groups upon the color of the flesh 

 — the yellow-fleshed and the red-fleshed, or Satsumas — but this classi- 

 fication would serve little purpose, although the Satsumas seem to be 

 recognized as a class by my Japanese correspondents. 



Characteristics of the Japanese plums. — Many varieties of Japa- 

 nese are now named and more or less disseminated in this county, and 

 others are known by numbers or indefinite appellations. . . . Un- 



* Upon this point. Professor Georgeson explains as follows : " Quite a number 

 of the many other varieties [than the Sumomo] springing from this species are 

 designated by two general names, a fact which is very confusing to a stranger 

 when he begins to study them. These names are botankio and hattankio, or bo- 

 dankio and hadankio, for they are variously pronounced as regards the sound 

 of d and t. These two names are common, and are even occasionally heard in 

 this country: but it is a mistake to suppose that they apply to two and only two 

 varieties. They are names of two ill-defined classes of plums, and are applied 

 rather loosely to several varieties which differ in color and size, and somewhat 

 also in shape. The only distinction between the two classes that I have been 

 able to establish is based on the shape. The round plums are designated by the 

 term botankio, while those of an oval or pointed shape are called hattankio. A 

 mistake often made by foreigners, and by some natives also, is to suppose that 

 the distinction is based on color, though it is a fact that most of the botan- 

 kios are red. The name hattankio is also sometimes given to the almond, while 

 botan is the name of the peony, and ha-botan means cabbage, and one of the 

 many meanings of kio, or kiyo, is large, or great. If these objects had anything 

 to do with the naming of the plums, it seems probable that botan referred to the 

 rounded shape and not to the color, since their peonies are found in a great va- 

 riety of colors, and that hattankio referred to the resemblance in shape to the 

 almond. But, as already remarked, these names are used very loosely, as it is 

 an easy matter to find several evidently quite distinct varieties of each class for 

 which both grower and dealer can give you no other name than botankio or hat- 

 tankio, as the case may be. Sometimes, again, these terms may have a prefix in- 

 dicative of color or size, or the place where it is grown." (Am. Gard., xii, 74.) 



