30 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



State that certain races of the peach are natives of southern France. 

 Duhamel Du Monceau ' and Leroy ^ are chief champions of this beUef and 

 the latter says that Mayer, Calvel and Carriere, other French authorities, 

 are of the same opinion. These French writers offer no substantial proofs 

 and botanists do not agree with them; it seems, weighing the evidence 

 at this distance, as if they had copied Columella and Pliny too closely. 

 The fact that the peach is a perfectly naturalized denizen of parts of France, 

 of course, gives color to the belief that it is a native and not an exotic in 

 that country. Quite similarly, our early botanists, including so careful 

 an observer as Bartram, were of the opinion that the peach belonged to 

 America for the reason that they found it growing wild in our southern 

 woods — an escape from early Spanish settlers. Pliny's Gallic peach, 

 probably, was a descendant of an early introduction from some outside 

 source. How the " Asiatic peach " of our quotation differs from the 

 " Persian apple " does not appear except in its origin, it probably having 

 come more or less directly from Asia Minor which in Pliny's time seems 

 to have been Asia. 



The last two of Pliny's six varieties are those known as " supernatia " 

 which " come from the country of the Sabines " and the " popularia " 

 which " grow everywhere." Whether supernatia, meaning " from above," 

 refers to the fact that this peach grows in the high and mountainous country 

 of the Sabines or to its being a choice variety, cannot be said. Probably, 

 however, it designates choice peaches while the " popularia " which grow 

 everywhere refers to the common run of this fruit. 



Peaches were profitable in Rome in Pliny's time, for they sold " as 

 high as thirty sesterces apiece." A sesterce is four and one-half cents 

 so that the possible price of a peach in Rome 1900 years ago was $1.35. 

 The Roman peach-grower was at the mercy of the seasons as are those 

 of nowadays for we read that when once plucked the peach could be kept 

 but a couple of days, " so sold it must be, fetch what it may." 



The statement that the peach is a " particular favorite with invalids," 

 reminds us that the ancients ascribe various medicinal properties to 

 nearly all plants and Pliny sets forth those of the peach as follows:^ 



" Peaches, again, are more wholesome than plums; and the same is 

 the case with the juice of the fruit, extracted, and taken in either wine or 



Duhamel Du Monceau Trait. Arh. Fr. 2:1-2. 1768. 

 'Leroy Diet. Pom. 6:10. 1879. 

 ' Bostock and Riley Nat. History of Pliny 4:508. 1856. 



