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 (, 4:95, 96; 8; 17).
1. Morus alba.
2. Pistacia lentiscus, a resinous evergreen shrub or tree grown for its gum, mastic.
3. Pistacia terebinthus, or the cypress-turpentine.
4. Probably Rhamnus paliurus, or the “thorn of Christ.”
5. Arbutus unedo, a broad-leaf evergreen tree bearing clusters of white or pink flowers and fleshy, orange-red, strawberrylike fruit.
6. Probably Celtis australis, or micocoulier (nettle tree) of Provence.
7. Myrtus communis.
8. Lauras nobilis.
9. Acer monspessulanum, or the Montpellier maple.
10. Probably Genista juncea, grown for the beauty and aroma of its flowers.
11. The "arbre de Sainte-Lucie" (Prunus mahaleb or cerasus mahaleb), also referred to as "bois de Sainte-Lucie," was a species of cherry tree.
12. Dictamnus albus, also known as fraxinella, burning bush, or gas plant, a strong-smelling perennial herb grown for its white flowers.
13. Possibly Clematis viticella, an ornamental plant, or any one of a large number of other species of Clematis.