PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 197 



touching the lotus of the lotus-eaters/ and it is needless 

 to insist upon a point so obscure, in which so much must 

 be allowed for the imagination of a poet and for popular 

 ignorance. 



The jujube tree is now wild in dry places from Egypt 

 to Marocco, in the south of Spain, Terracina, and the 

 neighbourhood of Palermo.^ In isolated Italian localities 

 it has probably escaped from cultivation. 



Indian Jujube^ — Zizyphus jujuhe, Lamarck; her among 

 the Hindus and Anglo-Indians, masson in the Mauritius. 



This jujube is cultivated further south than the com- 

 mon kind, but its area is equally extensive. The fruit is 

 sometimes like an unripe cherry, sometimes like an olive, 

 as is shown in the plate published by Bouton in Hooker's 

 Journal of Botany, i. pi. 140. The great number of 

 known varieties indicates an ancient cultivation. It 

 extends at the present day from Southern China, the Malay 

 Archipelago, and Queensland, through Arabia and Egypt 

 as far asMarocco, and even to Senegal, Guinea, and Angola.'^ 

 It grows also in Mauritius, but it does not appear to have 

 been introduced into America as yet, unless perhaps into 

 Brazil, as it seems from a specimen in my herbarium.^ 

 The fruit is preferable to the common jujube, according 

 to some writers. 



It is not easy to know what was the habitation of 

 the species before all cultivation, because the stones sow 

 themselves readily and the plant becomes naturalized out- 

 side gardens.^ If we are guided by its abundance in a 

 wild state, it would seem that Burmah and British India 

 are its original abode. I have in my herbarium several 

 specimens gathered by WaUich in the kingdom of Burmah, 



^ See the article on the carob tree. 



2 Desfontaines, Fl. Atlant, i. p. 200; Mnnby, Catal Alger., edit. 2, p. 

 9; Ball, Sjncilegium, Fl. Maroc. , -p. 301; Willkomm and Lange, Prodr. FL 

 Eisp., iii. p. 481 ; Bertoloni, FL Ital., ii. p. 664. 



^ This name, which is little used, occurs in Bauhin, as Jujiiba Indica. 



" Sir J. Hooker, Fl. Brit hid., i. p. 632 ; Brandis, Forest Fl., i. 87 ; 

 Bentham, FL Austral., i. p. 412; Boissier, FL Orient., H.-g. 13; Oliver, 

 FL of Trop. Afr., i. p. 379. 



^ Received from Martins, No. 1070, from the Caho frio. 



® Bouton, in Hooker's Journ. of Bot.; Baker, FL of Mauritius, p. 61 ; 

 Brandis. 



