George Washington Papers
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Enclosure: List of Seeds, January 1790

Enclosure

List of Seeds

[January 1790]

Etat Des Graines des pais meridionaux De france

Murier Blanc pour Les Elever de vers a Soye—white mulberry1 (for breeding Silk worms[)]

Lentisque—Mastic-Tree.2

Therebinthe—Turpentine-Tree3

paliure—a species of the bramble or thorn.4

arbousier—the arbute or strawberry-Tree.5

micocoulier—an african tree, being a kind of lotos.6

mirthe—myrtle common7

Laurier frane. noble laurel.8

Erable de montpelier—The maple of montpellier9

genet Epineux[.] way thorn or furze.10

arbre de Ste Lucie. Tree of St Lucia, a species of Plum.11

fustet—a species of olive.

fraxinelle—frapinelle—garden ginger12

clematite—a species of cotton—tree or shrub.13

Cypres piramidal—pyramidal Cypress.

pin Cultivé—cultivated pine.

D, DLC:GW; translation, interlineated in Morris’s handwriting.

Of the species appearing on this list, only the white mulberry and garden ginger grew at Mount Vernon during GW’s lifetime. These, however, had been planted before 1790 (Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 4:95, 96; Sargent, Trees at Mount Vernon, description begins Charles Sprague Sargent. The Trees at Mount Vernon. Rev. ed. N.p., [1926]. description ends 8; Mount Vernon Gardens, description begins The Mount Vernon Gardens: With notes pertaining to the Domestic Life of George and Martha Washington. Mount Vernon, Va., 1941. description ends 17).

1Morus alba.

2Pistacia lentiscus, a resinous evergreen shrub or tree grown for its gum, mastic.

3Pistacia terebinthus, or the cypress-turpentine.

4Probably Rhamnus paliurus, or the “thorn of Christ.”

5Arbutus unedo, a broad-leaf evergreen tree bearing clusters of white or pink flowers and fleshy, orange-red, strawberrylike fruit.

6Probably Celtis australis, or micocoulier (nettle tree) of Provence.

7Myrtus communis.

8Lauras nobilis.

9Acer monspessulanum, or the Montpellier maple.

10Probably Genista juncea, grown for the beauty and aroma of its flowers.

11The "arbre de Sainte-Lucie" (Prunus mahaleb or cerasus mahaleb), also referred to as "bois de Sainte-Lucie," was a species of cherry tree.

12Dictamnus albus, also known as fraxinella, burning bush, or gas plant, a strong-smelling perennial herb grown for its white flowers.

13Possibly Clematis viticella, an ornamental plant, or any one of a large number of other species of Clematis.

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