THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK l^ 



adopted fruit; in consequence of its being thus compounded of both, it 

 is known by the name of ' nuci-pnma.' Nut -prunes, as well as the peach, 

 the wild plum and the cerina, are often put in casks and so kept till the 

 crop comes of the following year. All the other varieties ripen with the 

 greatest rapidity and pass off just as quickly. More recently, in Baetica, 

 they have begun to introduce what they call ' malina,' or the fruit of the 

 plum engrafted on the apple tree, and ' amygdalina,' the fruit of the plum 

 engrafted on the almond tree, the kernel found in the stone of these last 

 being that of the almond. Indeed, there is no specimen in which two 

 fruits have been more ingeniously combined in one. Among the foreign 

 trees we have already spoken of the Damascene plum, so-called from 

 Damascus, in Syria, but introduced long since into Italy, though the stone 

 of this plum is larger than usual, and the flesh small in quantity. This 

 plum will never dry so far as to wrinkle; to effect that, it needs the sun of 

 its own native country. The myxa, too, may be mentioned as being the 

 fellow countryman of the Damascene; it has of late been introduced into 

 Rome and has been grown engrafted upon the sorb." 



While the records are somewhat vague it is probable that the Domes- 

 tica plums came from the region about the Caucasus Mountains and the 

 Caspian Sea and especially the section east of these mountains and the sea. 

 What seems to be the wild form of this species has been found by several 

 botanists in this great region." Here the Huns, Turks, Mongols and Tar- 

 tars, flowing back and forth in tides of war-like migration, maintained 

 in times of peace a crude agriculture probably long before the Greeks and 

 Romans tilled the soil. The plum was one of their fruits and the dried 

 prune a staple product. Here, still, to the east, west and north toward 

 central Asia, plums are among the common fruits and pnines are common 

 articles of trade. Even in the fertile oases of the great central Asian 

 desert, plums are cultivated, but whether domesticated here or brought 

 from elsewhere cannot be told. Koch,^ speaking of prunes in particular, 

 gives the following account (translated) of their Asiatic origin: 



" According to my investigation Turkestan and the southern Altai 

 Mountains are the place of origin. When in the year 1844 I found myself 

 in Baku on the west coast of the Caspian Sea, I had plenty of opportunity 

 to draw accoimts of the frioits of their native lands from the Turkestan 

 and Bokharan merchants, and was astonished over the high cultivation 

 of stone fruits in these places — at the same time I was able to taste dried 

 the most choice because best flavored, the Ali-Bokhara, that is Bokhara 



• Koch, K. Dend. 1:94, 96. 1869. Ledebour. Fl. Ross. 2:5. 1829. Boissier. Fl. Orient. 2:652. 

 'Koch, K. Deia. Obst. 146. 1876. 



