PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 217 



Indian botanists^ are ao-reed in considerino^ that the 

 apricot, which is generally cultivated in the north of 

 India and in Thibet, is not wild in those regions; but 

 they add that it has a tendency to become naturalized, 

 and that it is found upon the site of ruined villages. 

 Messrs. Schlagintweit brought specimens from the north- 

 west provinces of India, and from Thibet, which West- 

 mael verified,^ but he was kind enough to write to me 

 that he cannot affirm that it was wild, since the collector's 

 label gives no information on that head. 



Roxburgh,^ who did not neglect the question of origin, 

 says, speaking of the apricot, " native of China as well 

 as the west of Asia." I read in Dr. Bretschneider's 

 curious little work,^ drawn up at Pekin, the following 

 passage, which seems to me to decide the question in 

 favour of a Chinese origin: — ''Sing, as is well known, 

 is the apricot (Prunus aroneniaca). The character (a 

 Chinese sign printed on p. 10) does not exist as indicat- 

 ing a fruit, either in the Shu-king, or in the Shi-king, 

 Cihouli, etc., but the Shan-hai-king says that several 

 sings grow upon the hills (here a Chinese character). 

 Besides, the name of the apricot is represented by a 

 particular sign which may show that it is indigenous in 

 China." The Shan-hai-king is attributed to the Emperor 

 Yii, who lived in 2205-2198 B.C. Decaisne,^ who was 

 the first to suspect the Chinese origin of the apricot, has 

 recently received from Dr. Bretschneider some specimens 

 accompanied by the following note : — " No. 24, apricot 

 wild in the mountains of Pekin, where it grows in 

 abundance ; the fruit is small (an inch and a quarter in 

 diameter), the skin red and j^ellow ; the flesh salmon 

 colour, sour, but eatable. No. 25, the stone of the apricot 

 cultivated round Pekin. The fruit is twice as large as 



^ Eojle, III. of Himalaya, p. 205 ; Aitchison, Catal. of Punjab and 

 SindJiyip.DG; Sir Joseph Hooker, J^Z. of Brit. Ind., ii. p. 313; Brandis, 

 Forest Flora of N. W. and Central India, 191. 



2 Westmael, in Bull. 8oc. Bot. Belgiq., viii., p. 219. 



3 Eoxburgli, Fl. Lid., edit. 2, v. ii. p. 501. 



* Bretschneider, On the Study and Value, etc., pp. 10, 49. 



^ Decaisne, Jardin Fruitier du Museum, vol. viii., art. Ahricotier. 



