FRUITS, WILD AND CULTIVATED 27 



varieties of apricot in China, as the dried apricots prepared 

 in northern India, which find their way across Thibet to 

 Western China, are highly esteemed by Thibetans and Chinese 

 alike. 



Plums, " Ku-li-tzu," are commonly cultivated, the fruits 

 being round in shape and either green, yellow, red, or purple 

 in colour, but all are of indifferent flavour. All these culti- 

 vated forms are derived from P. salicina, a tree common in 

 the thickets and margins of woods throughout Hupeh and 

 Szechuan. Under the name of Japanese Plum this species 

 has been introduced into California, Europe, and elsewhere, 

 and is now widely cultivated. Authentic specimens of the 

 species from which the plums cultivated in Europe have been 

 derived (P. communis) have not been recorded from China, 

 and very probably it does not occur there. The Japanese 

 Apricot (P. mume), so widely cultivated in China and 

 Japan, where it is dwarfed and trained into curious shapes 

 and much appreciated for its early flowering propensities, is 

 wild in western Hupeh and Szechuan, being known as " Oo- 

 me." The fruit is round, usually red on one side and yellow 

 on the other, of indifferent flavour, and rendered less palatable 

 by its felted, woolly stone. 



The Common Almond is not grown in China, but in 1910, 

 near Sungpan, I discovered an allied species, since named 

 P. dehiscens, in which the ripe fruit opens and exposes 

 the stone. The kernel of this fruit is eaten and locally is 

 much esteemed. The plant forms a very dense, spiny bush, 

 5 to 12 feet tall, and is very abundant in the upper reaches of 

 the Min Valley. The fruit may be described as " dry," since 

 hardly any " flesh " is developed. This species is now in 

 cultivation, and is certainly an interesting addition to the 

 Almonds hitherto grown. 



Cherries, " Ying-tao," are abundant in the woods and forests 

 and run riot in species. In Plantce Wilsoniance, Part II, 

 Koehne describes no fewer than 40 species based on material 

 collected by me alone ! The Cherry is, however, rarely culti- 

 vated, and such fruit as is on sale at Ichang and elsewhere 

 is small and lacking in flavour. Its chief merit is in being the 

 fii-st stone-fruit of the season, coming into the market the 



