204 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Rosacea. 
Fragaria nubicola,Wall., very closely allied to F’. collina, affords a grateful fruit in May, 
on such places as Phagoo, Mhasoo, Bhoke, &c. 
With exception of the Amygdalee, which secrete hydrocyanic acid, none of the 
Rosaceé are possessed of deleterious properties, but many are remarkable for producing 
the most delicious fruits, both in Europe and Asia. Of most of these, the native coun- 
try is not well ascertained ; but in Europe, we point to the S.E., and in India to the 
N.W.., as their native country. Thus, in India—Caubul, and Cashmere; and in Europe, 
—Pontus and Armenia, are considered as the native countries of the same fruits, which the 
ancients generally named from the places whence they were procured. Thus we have 
Cerasus and Persica, Armeniaca and Cydonia mala. In India, however, the languages 
being more analogous, they adopt the names of the countries more to the northward. 
But as none of these fruits have been found wild in the plains of these Asiatic countries, 
we must look to the mountains which run along their whole extent, as their probable 
native sites, especially as we shall there find most of the fruits alluded to, if not wild, yet 
in a high state of perfection, with new species of the genera to which they belong. 
Thus, the almond, peach, nectarine, apricot, plum, and cherry, with the apple, 
pear, and quince, are all found either in a wild or cultivated state on the ramifications 
of Taurus and Caucasus, Hindookhoosh and the Himalayas, or on the valleys included 
within them. Most of them are enumerated by Forster and Moorcroft, as being abun- 
dant in Cashmere, whence I introduced them into the Mussooree N ursery. Mr. Elphin- 
stone and Lieut. Burnes inform us, they abound in Peshawur and Caubul; and by the 
latter, the peach, apricot, cherry, plum, pear, apple, and quince, are represented as 
abundant at Bokhara, and other places on the north of the Hindookhoosh : in Kunawur, 
on the north of the Himalaya, we have the apricot, peach, plum, and apple. 
The Almond, which, though flowering, does not ripen its fruit in N. India, and of 
which both the sweet and bitter kinds are known and imported into the northern parts 
from Ghoorbund, and into the southern parts of India by the Persian Gulf, is so exten- 
sively cultivated in the south of Europe, in Syria, and Barbary, that it is probable its 
native country may be further north than others of the tribe, and therefore the north 
of Africa, as generally supposed; though it may also be found in the mountains of Asia. 
The Peach, introduced into Europe from Persia, a country in which the fruit is very 
fine, and where both the free and cling-stone varieties are known, and called kudloo and 
kardee, the general name for peach, being Persian aroo; and Arabic khookh. They . 
ripen well, and are of a fine flavour in Peshawur; also, in the north of India, with the 
well-flavoured flat peach from China. With care, it succeeds also in the elevated land 
of Mysore; it is found wild in different parts of the Himalayas, as about Mussooree, at 
elevations of 5,000 and 6,000 feet. In the district of Bissehur there is a distinct kind, 
called bhemee by the natives, Persica saligna, nob., which though small, is juicy and 
very sweet. The Nectarine is found.in gardens in Northern India, where it is called 
shuft-aloo, and moondla (smooth) arco, though it does not perfectly ripen its fruit, nor is 
it known from whence it was introduced, though probably from Caubul. 
The 
