THE PLUM 319 



I recall very vividly the precise stimulus that 

 led me a number of years before the Japanese 

 seedlings were actually imported to turn my 

 eyes toward Japan as the probable source of a 

 new race of plums. 



A SAILOR'S YARN AND WHAT 

 CAME OF IT 



Browsing among the books of the Mercantile > 

 Library in San Francisco, I had chanced to come 

 upon an account of the wanderings in Japan of 

 an American sailor, and what particularly held 

 my attention was his mention of a red-fleshed 

 plum of exceptional quality that he had seen 

 and eaten in the province of Satsuma in southern 

 Japan. 



That red-fleshed plum appealed to me, and 

 I determined to secure a specimen of it for my 

 own orchards. 



The sailor reported in his book that he had 

 seen a single plum tree bearing this "blood plum 

 of Satsuma." But of course the rarity of the 

 fruit made it all the more alluring. So in due 

 course when I came to make importations of 

 native seeds, plants, and bulbs from Japan, I 

 asked Mr. Isaac Bunting, an English bulb 

 dealer in Yokohama who collected these for me, 

 to visit the southern part of that country and 



