462 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



Massachusetts.' Downing * says the plum is red or purple, covered with a bloom, pleasant 

 but somewhat astringent. 



P. mume Sieb. & Zucc. Japanese apricot. 



Japan. The fruit is hard and sour and as a rule is eaten salted or dried. It is also 

 made into vinegar. This species is cultivated chiefly on accotmt of its blossoms.' In 

 China, the blossoms are used for scenting tea.* 



P. padus Linn, bird cherry, hagberry. 



Europe and northern Asia. The fruit is sour, with a slight mawkish, astringent 

 flavor but is much eaten by the Hill People of India. In Sweden and Lapland and some 

 parts of Russia, the bruised fruit is fermented and a spirit is distilled from it.' Lightfoot ' 

 says the black fruit, of the size of grapes, of a nauseous taste, is eaten in Sweden and 

 Kamchatka and is used in brandy in Scotland. The hagberry of Scotland is said by 

 Macgillivray ' to be small, round, black, harsh and nauseous. De Candolle * says a variety 

 occurs with yellow fruit. 



P. paniculata Thimb. 



Japan. This is the Yung-Jo of China but cultivated there only for ornament at 

 Canton, where it rarely fruits. This species was introduced into England in 1819. The 

 cherries are said by Knight ' to be middle-sized, reddish-amber in color, very sweet, 

 juicy and excellent. Smith i" says, in China, its fruit is preserved as a sweetmeat with 

 honey. 



P. pemisylvanica Linn. f. bird cherry, pin cherry, wild red cherry. 



Eastern North America. Vasey " says the fruit is sotarand unpleasant; Pursh,'^ that 

 it is agreeable to eat; Wood," that it is red and add. 



P. persica Stokes, peach. 



Orient. The peach was known to Theophrastus,'* 322 B. C, who speaks of it as 

 a fruit of Persia, but Xenophon,'* 401 B. C, makes no mention of the peach. The Hebrew 

 books are also without mention and there seems to be no Sanscrit name.'* The peach 



' Emerson, G. B. Trees, Shrubs Mass. 2:511. 1875. 

 ' Downing, A. J. Fr. Fr. Trees Amer. 350. 1857. 

 ' Rein Indust. Jap. 86. 1889. 

 < Rein Indust. Jap. 123. 1889. 

 ' Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 194. 1874. 

 Lightfoot, J. Fl. Scot. 1:25^. 1789. 

 ' Macgillivray, W. Journ. Agr. 2:$o6. 1831. 

 ' De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:1083. 1855. {Cerasus padus) 

 ' Knight, T. A. Phys. Hart. Papers 295. 1841. 

 '" Smith, F. P. Contrib. Mat. Med. China 58. 1871. 

 " Vassey U. S. D. A. Rpt. 161. 1875. 

 "Pursh, F. Fl.Amer. SepUnt.ilii'i. 1814. 

 " Wood, A. Class Book Bot. 327. 1864. 



" De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:883. 1855. {Amygdalus persica) 

 Ibid. 

 ' Ibid. 



