Plum \Plum\, n. [AS. pl[=u]me, fr. L. prunum; akin to Gr. ?, ?.
Cf. Prune a dried plum.]
[1913 Webster]
1. (Bot.) The edible drupaceous fruit of the Prunus
domestica, and of several other species of Prunus;
also, the tree itself, usually called plum tree.
[1913 Webster]
The bullace, the damson, and the numerous varieties
of plum, of our gardens, although growing into
thornless trees, are believed to be varieties of the
blackthorn, produced by long cultivation. --G.
Bentham.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Two or three hundred varieties of plums derived from
the Prunus domestica are described; among them the
greengage, the Orleans, the purple gage, or
Reine Claude Violette, and the German prune, are
some of the best known.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Among the true plums are;
Beach plum, the Prunus maritima, and its crimson or
purple globular drupes,
Bullace plum. See Bullace.
Chickasaw plum, the American Prunus Chicasa, and its
round red drupes.
Orleans plum, a dark reddish purple plum of medium size,
much grown in England for sale in the markets.
Wild plum of America, Prunus Americana, with red or
yellow fruit, the original of the Iowa plum and several
other varieties.
[1913 Webster] Among plants called plum, but of other
genera than Prunus, are;
Australian plum, Cargillia arborea and Cargillia
australis, of the same family with the persimmon.
Blood plum, the West African H[ae]matostaphes Barteri.
Cocoa plum, the Spanish nectarine. See under Nectarine.
Date plum. See under Date.
Gingerbread plum, the West African Parinarium
macrophyllum.
Gopher plum, the Ogeechee lime.
Gray plum, Guinea plum. See under Guinea.
Indian plum, several species of Flacourtia.
[1913 Webster]
2. A grape dried in the sun; a raisin.
[1913 Webster]
3. A handsome fortune or property; formerly, in cant
language, the sum of [pounds]100,000 sterling; also, the
person possessing it.
[1913 Webster]
4. Something likened to a plum in desirableness; a good or
choice thing of its kind, as among appointments,
positions, parts of a book, etc.; as, the mayor rewarded
his cronies with cushy plums, requiring little work for
handsome pay
[Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]
5. A color resembling that of a plum; a slightly grayish deep
purple, varying somewhat in its red or blue tint.
[PJC]
Plum bird, Plum budder (Zool.), the European bullfinch.
Plum gouger (Zool.), a weevil, or curculio (Coccotorus
scutellaris), which destroys plums. It makes round holes
in the pulp, for the reception of its eggs. The larva
bores into the stone and eats the kernel.
Plum weevil (Zool.), an American weevil which is very
destructive to plums, nectarines, cherries, and many other
stone fruits. It lays its eggs in crescent-shaped
incisions made with its jaws. The larva lives upon the
pulp around the stone. Called also turk, and plum
curculio. See Illust. under Curculio.
[1913 Webster]
|
Lotus \Lo"tus\ (l[=o]"t[u^]s), n. [L. lotus, Gr. lwto`s. Cf.
Lote.]
1. (Bot.)
(a) A name of several kinds of water lilies; as Nelumbium
speciosum, used in religious ceremonies, anciently in
Egypt, and to this day in Asia; Nelumbium luteum,
the American lotus; and Nymph[ae]a Lotus and
Nymph[ae]a c[ae]rulea, the respectively
white-flowered and blue-flowered lotus of modern
Egypt, which, with Nelumbium speciosum, are figured
on its ancient monuments.
(b) The lotus of the lotuseaters, probably a tree found in
Northern Africa, Sicily, Portugal, and Spain
(Zizyphus Lotus), the fruit of which is mildly
sweet. It was fabled by the ancients to make strangers
who ate of it forget their native country, or lose all
desire to return to it.
(c) The lote, or nettle tree. See Lote.
(d) A genus (Lotus) of leguminous plants much resembling
clover. [Written also lotos.]
[1913 Webster]
European lotus, a small tree (Diospyros Lotus) of
Southern Europe and Asia; also, its rather large bluish
black berry, which is called also the date plum.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Arch.) An ornament much used in Egyptian architecture,
generally asserted to have been suggested by the Egyptian
water lily.
[1913 Webster] Lotus-eater
|
Date \Date\, n.[F. datte, L. dactylus, fr. Gr. ?, prob. not the
same word as da`ktylos finger, but of Semitic origin.] (Bot.)
The fruit of the date palm; also, the date palm itself.
[1913 Webster]
Note: This fruit is somewhat in the shape of an olive,
containing a soft pulp, sweet, esculent, and wholesome,
and inclosing a hard kernel.
[1913 Webster]
Date palm, or Date tree (Bot.), the genus of palms which
bear dates, of which common species is Ph[oe]nix
dactylifera. See Illust.
Date plum (Bot.), the fruit of several species of
Diospyros, including the American and Japanese
persimmons, and the European lotus (Diospyros Lotus).
Date shell, or Date fish (Zool.), a bivalve shell, or its
inhabitant, of the genus Pholas, and allied genera. See
Pholas.
[1913 Webster]
|