84 THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 



americana], a little waved on their edges, marked with very fine, slight, 

 coloured serratures, and of an equal shining green colour, on both sides. 

 The blossoms generally come out very thick and are succeeded by oval, 

 or often somewhat egg-shaped fruit, with a very thin skin, and soft, sweet 

 pulp. There are varieties of this with yellow and crimson coloured fruit. 

 These being natives of the Southern states, are somewhat impatient of 

 much cold." 



The tree -characters given by Marshall are hardly those of the plum 

 under cultivation which we have been calling Prunus angustifolia, and 

 his statement that the species is " impatient of much cold " at once sepa- 

 rates the cultivated " Angustifolias " from the true species. We shall 

 contrast the tree -characters of the two groups of plums in the discussion 

 of Prunus munsoniana. Of the hardiness of the two it may be said that 

 the cultivated varieties which we have placed in the last named species 

 are for the most part hardy as far north as Burlington, Vermont, while the 

 true Prunus angustifolia cannot be grown to fruiting as far north as Geneva, 

 New York. Its behavior, too, on the northern limit of its range, and the 

 fact that it did not follow the aborigines northward as it seems to have 

 followed them from place to place within its range, show that Prunus 

 angustifolia belongs in the southern states. 



This plum was well known by the early colonists of Virginia and 

 southward. John Smith in Virginia, in 1607-9, and Strachey, writing a 

 few years later, saw " cherries much like a damoizm, but for their taste 

 and cullour we called them cherries." Beverly in his History of Virginia, 

 written in 1822, speaks of two sorts of plums, " the black and the Murrey 

 Plum, both of which are small and have much the same relish with the 

 Damasine " ; the latter was probably the Angustifolia. Lawson in his 

 History of Carolina speaks of several plums, 1 one of which, the Indian 

 plum, must have been the fruit of the present discussion. Bruce' quotes 



1 " The wild Plums of America are of several sorts. Those which I can give an account of 

 from my own Knowledge, I will, and leave the others till a farther Discovery. The most frequent 

 is that which we call the common Indian Plum, of which there are two sorts, if not more. One 

 of these is ripe much sooner than the other, and differs in the bark; one of the barks being very scaly, 

 like our American Birch. These Trees, when in Blossom, smell as sweet as any Jessamine, and 

 look as white as a Sheet, being something prickly. You may make it grow to what Shape you 

 please; they are very ornamental about a House, and make a wonderful fine Shew at a Distance, 

 in the Spring, because of their white Livery. Their Fruit is red, and very palatable to the sick. 

 They are of a quick Growth, and will bear from the Stone in five years, on their Stock." Lawson, 

 John History of Carolina 105. 1714. 



1 " The third was known among the later colonists as the Indian cherry and was the product 

 of a tree hardly exceeded by the English peach tree in girth and height, and showing an inclina- 



