THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 93 



for they were among the first fruits noticed by early explorers and have 

 always been used by both Indians and Whites for culinary purposes. The 

 fact that Domestica plums thrive in their habitat is the only explanation 

 of the non -amelioration of this plum before this. 



September third, 1609, Hudson entered the river bearing his name 

 and found " a very good harbor, abundance of blue plums, some currants 

 brought by the natives dried and the country full of great and tall oaks." 

 The blue plum was the Maritima; and from Hudson's time nearly all of 

 the accounts of the New World given by early explorers mention this 

 plum. It is probably one of the plums described by Captain John Smith 

 as a cherry "much like a Damson;" by Edward Winslow in 1621, in a 

 letter to England to a friend, as one of his "plums of three sorts"; by 

 Francis Higginson in his New England's Plantation in 1630; described by 

 Thomas Morton in 1632 in his New English Canaan as having " fruit as 

 bigg as our ordinary bullis." John Lawson, one of the first of American 

 naturalists, describes them rather more fully as follows: 1 " The Amer- 

 ican Damsons are both black and white, and about the Bigness of an 

 European Damson. They grow any where if planted from the Stone or 

 Slip; bear a white blossom, and are a good fruit. They are found on the 

 Sand-Banks all along the Coast of America. I have planted several in 

 my Orchard, that came from the Stone, which thrive well amongst the rest 

 of my Trees. But they never grow to the Bigness of the other Trees now 

 spoken of. These are plentiful Bearers." These are but a few of the many 

 references to the Beach plum but they are enough to show that the colo- 

 nists were attracted by this wild plum found on a long stretch of the Atlantic 

 seaboard probably the first fruit to attract attention from Virginia to 

 New England. 



To be more explicit as to its range, Prunus maritima, in its typical 

 form, is an inhabitant of the sea beaches and sand dunes from New Bruns- 

 wick to the Carolinas, or possibly farther south, growing inland usually 

 as far as recent ocean soil formations extend. As it leaves the seaboard 

 marked variations make their appearance, chief of which are, smaller, 

 more oval, smoother and thinner leaves and smaller fruit. The species 

 has been reported as an inhabitant of the sands at the head of Lake 

 Michigan, 1 but the writer, who is well acquainted with this region, has 

 never seen it there, nor is it to be found in the chief herbaria of Michigan 

 as having been collected in the state. 



'Lawson, John History of Carolina 105. 1714. 



1 Waugh Vt. Sta. An. Rpt. 12:235. 1899. Bailey Cyc. Am. Hart. 1449. 1901. 



