PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIK FRUITS. 195 



of tlie objections I have just mentioned. According to 

 plant collectors and authors of floras, the species appears 

 to be more wild and more anciently cultivated in the 

 east than in the west of its present wide area. Thus, in 

 the north of China, de Bunge says it is " very common 

 and very troublesome (on account of its thorns) in moun- 

 tainous places." He had seen the thornless variety in 

 gardens. Bretschneider ^ mentions the jujube as one of 

 the fruits most prized by the Chinese, who give it the 

 simple name tsao. He also mentions the two varieties, 

 with and without thorns, the former wild.^ The species 

 does not grow in the south of China and in India proper, 

 because of the heat and moisture of the climate. It is 

 found again wild in the Punjab, in Persia, and Armenia. 



Brandis ^ gives seven diflerent names for the jujube 

 tree (or for its varieties) in modern Indian languages, 

 but no Sanskrit name is kno\vTi. The species was there- 

 fore probably introduced into India from China, at no 

 very distant epoch, and it must have ^scaped from culti- 

 vation and have become wild in the dry provinces of the 

 west. The Persian name is anoh, the Ai'abic iinah. No 

 Hebrew name is known, a further sign that the species 

 is not very ancient in the west of Asia. 



The ancient Greeks do not mention the common 

 jujube, but only another species, Zizyphiis lotus. At least, 

 such is the opinion of the critic and modern botanist, 

 Lenz.* It must be confessed that the modern Greek name 

 2Jritzupkuia has no connection with the names formerly 

 attributed in Theophrastus and Dioscorides to some 

 Zizyphus, but is allied to the Latin name zizyplius (fruit 

 zizyphum) of Pliny, which does not occur in earlier 

 authors, and seems to be rather of an Oriental than of a 

 Latin character. Heldreich^ does not admit that the 

 jujube tree is wild in Greece, and others say " natural- 

 ized, half-wild," which confirms the hypothesis of a 



^ Bretschneider, Study and Value, etc., p. 11. 



^ Zizyphus chinensis of some authors is the same species. 



' Brandis, Forest Flora of British India, p. 84. 



* Lenz, Botanik der Alien, p. 651. 



^ Heldreich, Nutzpfianzen Griechenlands , p. 57. 



