1909] The Ottawa Naturalist. 35 



vitality in their seeds for a long period, those belonging to the 

 Leguminosffi are in greatest numbers. 



G. H. C. 



"The Origin of Our Cultivated Fruits" was the main 

 subject under discussion at a meeting of the Botanical Branch 

 held at the home of Mr. R. B. Whyte on March 6th. There 

 were present in addition to the Chairman, Messrs. Attwood, 

 Campbell, Bond, T. E. Clarke, Geo. H. Clark, Eddy, Binnie', 

 Groh, Morris, and W. T. Macoun. 



The origin of our cultivated fruits had evidently been 

 thoroughly investigated by Mr. Whyte, who gave a very interest- 

 ing account of what was known in regard to it. Most of our 

 fruits have been cultivated for such a long time that there is 

 little definite information as to their origin. It is known that 

 the Romans cultivated the apple, for Pliny wrote about it. 

 An apple was also exhibited by Mr. Eifrig at a former meeting 

 of the Botanical Branch taken from the ruins of the habitations 

 of Lake Dwellers in Switzerland who lived probably a thousand 

 or more years before the Roman era. Practically all of the culti- 

 vated apples are derived from European species, the only 

 named variety with American blood being the Soulard crab, 

 one of whose parents was Pyrus coronaria. The pear is also 

 a native of the old world and has evidently been cultivated 

 since very ancient times. One of the first historical references 

 to the pear is in Virgil, where it is stated that "Varieties of 

 pears are almost countless and nine-tenths are unworthy of 

 census." The two species of pears from which most of the 

 cultivated varieties came are Pyrus communis and Pyrus sinensis. 



The peach is another fruit of which little is known regard- 

 ing its origin, but it is believed to be a native of China and taken 

 to Persia in very early times, in which country it has been 

 improved very much. 



The early history of the European plum is also wrapt in 

 mystery, but it is supposed to have been derived from Pninus 

 spinosa and later from Prunus domestica. The Asiatic species 

 from which comes the Japanese plums is Prunus trifbra. The 

 Apricot plum, Prumis Simoni, from China is another Asiatic 

 species. In America improvement is just beginning with the 

 native species, P. americana, nigra, hortulana, and angustijolia. 



The European grapes are derived from Vitis vinijera, 

 improvement evidently having been begun in very early times. 

 In America, hybrids of Vitis Labrusca, the fox grape, and this 

 European species had given marked results. One of the earliest 

 known grapes of American origin is the Catawba, found wild 

 in Maryland in 1819. It probably has European blood. The 



