Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/121

 a name received from the Indians which it has never lost; its fruit clung to the branches as thickly as ropes of onions, and so great was the weight of the clusters that the limbs frequently broke down under the burden. The persimmon reminded the original settlers of Virginia of the English medley; there are several references to its extreme sourness in its unripe condition, a fact probably discovered very early in the first summer after the foundation of Jamestown, for the persimmon presents a more inviting aspect at that season than when thoroughly ripened by the frosts of autumn. Smith described it as a fruit which puckered up the mouth if eaten unripe, but of an excellent flavor when fully matured. In later colonial times, it was used for brewing beer, and an attempt has been recently made to convert it into a commodity similar to the preserved date.

The raspberry was represented in prim&aelig;val Virginia only by the black variety, that grows to-day in the lowland brakes in as much profusion as it did three hundred years ago; so palatable was its wild flavor, that many of the early colonists preferred it to the ordinary English red raspberry, but its superiority has not been generally admitted in later times. There were three varieties of the whortleberry, growing either upon sprigs that only rose a few inches above the ground, or upon bushes springing up to a height of eight or ten feet, according to the character of the soil. The whortleberry found its greatest nourishment in valleys and sunken lands. The cranberry flourished to the most advantage in the numerous bogs