Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Mike Lyle wrote:

Ah, right: somebody to ask. Is this _P. cerasifera_, called
"Cherry-Plum" in the Collins _Field Guide_, the same as a bullace?
Or
is a bullace the fruit of the "wild plum", _P. domestica_? The
Guide
rather irritatingly doesn't mention bullaces, though it's a common
enough word, and OED1 uses the obsolete name _P. insititia_
(though
it does call the plant "semi-cultivated", which is interesting: I
assume it means planted deliberately, or encouraged, in hedgerows
but
not in orchards).

The bullace is nowadays known as P. domestica, subspecies
insititia.
P. domestica is believed to have derived from P. cerasifera and
P. spinosa by hybridisation and chromosome doubling, though it is
debatable whether this happened naturally or artificially and once
or many times. It is also unclear whether it was introduced to the
UK by birds or humans. And your deduction of the meaning of semi-
cultivation is as good as any - the damson is usually regarded as
a cultivated bullace.

Given that chaos, are you surprised that the books are unclear?

Thanks. Not surprised at all when it comes to any domesticable
species. My old Latin dictionary, by the way, while not including
_insititius_, gives _insitio_ for "grafting"; this perhaps suggests
that _P.d.i._ may have been the stock used for orchard varieties in
the Middle Ages, or even by the Romans themselves.

I wonder if anybody's found readable DNA traces at Herculaneum. It
would be nice to have some evidence of Roman crop varieties -- it's
been said that the Pinot Meuniere grape dates to Roman times, for
example.

Mike.