471 
The broad-leaved variety grows up into very large trees in the southern parts of Caucasus. It 
is also native of the woods of Hyrcania and the whole coast of the Caspian.* 
Gesner was informed that it grows on the mountains about Verona; and Ray is pretty con¬ 
fident that he saw it in his way from Lerici to Lucca, not far from the latter. In the woods on the 
hills about Turin, plentifully about Lyons, and on the eastern coast of Africa* whence it is supposed 
to have first come to Europe. 
Mr. Miller has given the figure of the American sort, which he has confounded with this: he 
says it is a tree of middling growth in the south of Europe, upwards of thirty feet high; particularly 
that there is a very old tree in the botanic garden at Padua, which produces plenty of fruit every 
year, and that many trees have been raised from the seeds of it; but that there are none of 
these trees in England, except what had been raised by him, from seeds which were sent to him by 
the Chevalier Rathgeb, his imperial majesty's minister at Venice. He does not seem to have known 
that Gerarde had planted two trees of this sort in the Earl of Essex's garden at Barne Elmes, that 
it was also growing in Gerarde’s own garden, and in that of Maister Graie, an apothecary of London, 
Gerarde says, that in English it is called Bastard Meuynwood: this name is now quite lost. Parkinson 
calls it Indian Date Plum. 
Species 2. American Date Plum. (Diospyrgs Yirginiana.) 
The wood of the American Date Plum is very hard, but brittle and somewhat white; the branches 
are many, and grow slender to the end, covered with a very thin greenish bark. Leaves many, 
broad, green, without dent or notch on the edges, so like the former, that it seems to be the same.f 
Our European Lotus, however, has a lighter coloured bark, on the branches inclining to yellow, on 
the twigs yellow and shining: the American has a dark brown bark on the branches, and on the 
twigs it is greyish from pubescence, so that they are soft to the touch, whereas the others are smooth. 
The leaves of the first are in general much narrower, less pointed, more shining on their upper sur¬ 
face, not pubescent on the under, but rather glaucous: those of the second are grey on the back, 
and pubescent, particularly the midrib and petiole. Fruit in form and bigness like a date, very 
firm like that fruit, and almost as sweet, with a great flat thick kernel within, very like those of the 
former, but larger.^ 
It rises, in England, to the height of fourteen or sixteen feet, but generally divides into many 
irregular trunks near the ground, so that it is very rare to see a handsome tree of this sort. It pro¬ 
duces plenty of fruit in England, but it never comes to perfection. If it be eaten when it is green, 
as Captain Smith relates, in the discovery of Virginia, it draws the mouth awry by its harsh and 
binding taste, but when ripe it is pleasant.^ This is not the case till it lias been mellowed by the 
frost; it is then very sweet and glutinous, with a little astringency; and a considerable quantity 
may be eaten without inconvenience. In North America they make a palatable liquor with this 
fruit and malt; they also draw a spirit from it. The time of ripening is from the end of September 
to December. The wood of this tree is very good for joiner's tools, such as planes, handles to 
chisels, See. but it soon rots if exposed to the weather. It spreads very much, and is not easy to 
extirpate; but in the northern provinces of the American states, it is often killed by frost in hard 
winters.|| 
In Virginia and Carolina there is great plenty of these trees in the woods: also in Pensylvania, 
* Pallas. 
f Parkinson. 
t Ibid. 
§ Ibid 
|| Kalm. 
