NATIVE AMEEICAN SPECIES OF PEUNUS. 5 



and rudely cared for. The manuscript account by Conover (31, 

 p. 58) of Sullivan's expedition indicates that when the village of 

 Kanadasaga was destroyed, orchards of apples and plums were 

 found crudely cultivated. William Bartram (8, p. 38) also refers 

 to the cultivation of plums, although in a less convincing manner, 

 as follows : 



I observ^ed, in tlie ancient cultivated fields, 1. diospyros, 2. gleditsia triacanthos, 

 3. pniniis cMcasa-w, 4. callicarpa, 5. moms rubra, 6. juglans exaltata, 7. juglans 

 nigra, which inform us, that these trees were cultivated by the ancients, on account 

 of their fruit, as being wholesome and nourishing food. 



These observations seem to have been made in. the vicinity of 

 Wrightsboro, eastern Georgia. 



Again, in northwestern South Carohna, not far from Keowee 

 (8, p. 331), ''appeared the remains of a town of the ancients, as 

 the tiunuU, terraces, posts or pillars, old Peach and Plumb orchards, 

 &c., sufficiently testify," 



At the ancient town of Sticoe (8, p. 343), Bartram again says, 

 "here were also old peach and plum orchards; some of the trees 

 appeared yet thriving and fruitful." 



In all these instances in which plmns are mentioned as being found 

 m orchards, they were either with trees introduced by Europeans 

 or were near settlements of Europeans. EarUer authors appear to 

 have found groves of plums about Indian villages, but say nothing to 

 indicate that the trees or seeds were intentionally planted or cared 

 for, and perhaps this was not done until the coming of the white 

 man. The Indian villages may have been established in proxim- 

 ity to plum groves, or these may have sprung from seed thrown 

 away after the fruit had been brought for use from other localities. 



EARLY BOTANICAL DESCRIPTIONS. 



The first species to receive a botanical description was probably 

 Prunus araericana, for it is apparently this species which Plukenet 

 (61, p. 306) describes as "Prunus sylvestris Virginiana fructu luteo 

 rubente rotundo, ossiculo lato & compresso," and which he figures 

 in his Phytographia, tome 216, as figure 7. The loaves are figm^ed 

 with acute serrations and are about the form of those of Prunus 

 araericana, while the description of the fruit and stone also accords 

 well enough with this species. 



In 1739, a little more than 40 years afterwards, two species were 

 included in Clayton's Flora Virginica (28, p. 54), "Prunus sylvestris 

 liumilior, fructu rubro praecociori & minori, radice reptatrice," and 

 "Prunus sylvestris, fructu majore rubente." Although Linnaeus 

 is credited with the autliorsliip of Clayton's Flora, tJK^so s])ocics ar(i 

 not included in the Spo(;ies Plariturum. It is difli(;ult to say wliotlior 

 Clayton's descriptions really represent more than one species or, 



