172 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FEUITS 



plum, it is possible that the original printing is cor- 

 rect, although if "white" be omitted, there remain only 

 two of the "three sorts" of plums, the black and the 

 red. If white was intended, it is probable that the 

 writer had in mind fruits which are light -colored from 

 the presence of a heavy "bloom." But it is evident that 

 these running observations must not be translated too 

 exactly. It is enough to know that the settlers found 

 plums of eatable quality. 



Captain John Smith was attracted by the wild 

 plums when he first went to Virginia. "Plumbs there 

 are of 3 sorts," he says. "The red and white are like 

 our hedge plumbs : but the other, which they call 

 Putchamins, grow as high as a Palmeta. The fruit is 

 like a medler ; it is first greene, then yellow, and red 

 when it is ripe : if it be not ripe it will drawe a 

 mans mouth awrie with much torment ; but when it 

 is ripe, it is as delicious as an Apricock." The reader 

 will instantly recognize this last plum as the persim- 

 mon ; and the word " putchamin" is no doubt a pho- 

 netic rendering of the Indian word from which the 

 word persimmon is derived. Strachey, writing some 

 four or five years later (that is, sometime from 1610 

 to 1612), also speaks of a "plomb which they call 

 pessemmins," and he likens it to a medlar and an 

 apricot, no doubt in imitation of Smith. Strachey 

 also says : "They have cherries, much like a dam- 

 oizin, but for their tast and cullour we called them 

 cherries ; and a plomb there is, somewhat fairer than 

 a cherrie, of the same relish, then which "are seldom e 

 a better eaten." I suppose that the cherry to which 

 Strachey refers is the Chickasaw plum, which gro^vs 

 abundantly in that region, and which is even now 



