F.Akl.Y A.CC0UNT8 OF PLUMS 171 



fruit a> bigg as our ordinary bullis : others there 

 be, that «1<»' beare fruite much bigger than peare 

 plnmmes, their colour red, and their stones flat, very 

 delitious in taste." William Wood gives a more 

 explicit account of the wild cherries and plums, in 

 : a "New England's Prospect," published in l(i-'!4 : 

 "The Cherrie trees yeeld great store of Cherries which 

 grow on clusters like grapes; they be much smaller 

 than our English Cherrie, nothing neare bo good if 

 they I"- n<>t fully ripe, they so furre the mouth that 

 tin* tongue will cleave to the roofe, and the throate 

 wax hoarse with swallowing those red Bullies (as 

 I may call them) being little better in taste. Eng- 

 lish ordering may bring them to !"• an English 

 cherrie, but yel they are as wilde as the Indians. 

 The Plnmmes of th" Countrey be better for Plnmbs 

 than the Cherries be t'<>r Cherries; thej be blacke 

 and yellow, about th<' bignesse <»t a Damson, of a 

 reasonable L r <>"<l taste." 



Wood's cherry is instantly recognized as the choke 

 cherry, and it is probable that this is the species 

 which the other writers had in mind, although it is 

 hie that the sand cherrj <>i- even the beach plum 

 may have attracted their attention and have been rec- 

 ognized as cherries. Their plum is andoubtedly the 

 common native wild plum, which has a wide range 

 from New England westward and southward. It is nol 

 plain, however, whal the white plum of Winslow ma} 

 have been. Alexander Young, in hi> "Chronicles oi 

 th"- Pilgrim Fathers," says that in the original edi- 

 tion of Winslow, published in London in 1622, the 

 word "white" occurred as "with," which h<' <-all> "an 

 error of the press;" but inasmuch a> there is no white 



