A fact from Prunus simonii appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 4 February 2014 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that fruit of the Simon plum(pictured) looks like a tomato?
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It looks like the full name of the plant's namesake is Gabriel-Eugène Simon (1829-1896). Here is some information about him in French. Also, Bailey doesn't say that Simon sent the pits in 1872, rather that "it could not have been introduced long prior to 1872", when Carrière described the species.--Cam (talk) 15:08, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
This source says that Prunus simonii was among the plant samples sent by Simon from China between 1861 and 1864.--Cam (talk) 15:18, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
And here is the start of a nice biography of our Simon in English, from Bretschneider's History of European botanical discoveries in China (1898). If I have time in the next few days I will add pertinent info to this article.--Cam (talk) 15:53, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Nice detective work! Luther Burbank stated that it was Eugène Simon in 1872, but clearly he was wrong. Sminthopsis84 (talk) 16:17, 5 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
