208 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



Pontus, though they received or brought back several 

 specimens of P. avium} 



In the north of India, P. cerasus exists only as a 

 cultivated plant.^ The Chinese do not appear to have 

 been acquainted with our two kinds of cherry. Hence 

 it may be assumed that it was not very early introduced 

 into India, and the absence of a Sanskrit name confirms 

 this. We have seen that, according to Grisebach, P. 

 cerasus is nearly wild in Macedonia. It was said to 

 be wild in the Crimea, but Steven ^ only saw it cultivated ; 

 and Kehmann* gives only the allied species, P. chamoi- 

 cerasus, Jacquin, as wild in the south of Russia. I very 

 much doubt its wild character in any locality north of 

 the Caucasus. Even in Greece, where Fraas said he saw 

 this tree wild, Heldreich only knows it as a cultivated 

 species.^ In Dalmatia,^ a particular variety or allied 

 species, P. Marasco,, is found really wild; it is used 

 in making Maraschino wine. P. cerasus is wild in 

 mountainous parts of Italy '^ and in the centre of France,^ 

 but farther to the west and north, and in Spain, the 

 species is only found cultivated, and naturalized here 

 and there as a bush. P. cerasus, more than the bird- 

 cherry, evidently presents itself in Europe, as a foreign 

 tree not completely naturalized. 



None of the often-quoted passages ^ in Theophrastus, 

 Pliny, and other ancient authors appear to apply to 

 P. cerasus}^ The most important, that of Theophrastus, 

 belongs to Prunus avium, because of the height of 

 the tree, a character which distinguishes it from P. 

 cerasus. Kerasos being the name for the bird-cherry 



^ Boissier, Fl. Orient., ii. p. 649; TcMhatcheflf, Asie Mineure, Bot, p. 

 198. 



2 Sir J. Hooker, FL of Brit. India, ii. p. 313. 



3 Steven, Verzeichniss Halhinselm, etc., p. 147. 

 * Eehmann, VerhancU. Nat. Ver. Brunn, x. 1871. 



5 Heldreich, ISutzipfl. Griech., p. 69 ; Pfianzen d'Attisch. Ehene., p. 477. 



« Viviani, Fl. Dalnuit., iii. p. 258. ^ Bertoloni, Fl. Ital., v. p. 131. 



^ Lecoc and Lamotte, Catal. du Plat. Centr. de la France, p. 148. 



» Tlieophrastes, Hist. PL, lib. 3, c. 13 ; Pliny, lib. 15, c. 25, and others 

 quoted in Lenz, Bot. der Alten Gr. and Rom., p. 710. 



*° Part of the description of Theophi-astus shows a confusion with 

 other trees. He says, for instance, that the nut is soft. 



