PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 223 



established in Persia, would have easily spread on the 

 one side towards the west ; on the other, through Cabul 

 towards the north of India, where it is not so very ancient. 



" In confirmation of the hypothesis of a Chinese origin, 

 it may be added that the peach was introduced into 

 Cochin-China from China,^ and that the Japanese give 

 the Chinese name Tao ^ to the peach. M. Stanislas 

 Julien was kind enough to read to me in French seme 

 passages of the Japanese encyclopaedia (bk. Ixxxvi. p. 7), 

 in which the peach tree tao is said to be a tree of 

 Western countries, which should be understood to mean 

 the interior of China as compared to the eastern coast, 

 since the passage is taken from a Chinese author. The 

 tao occurs in the writings of Confucius in the fifth 

 century before the Christian era, and even in the Ritual 

 in the tenth century before Christ. Its wild nature is 

 not specified in the encyclopaedia of which I have just 

 spoken ; but Chinese authors pay little attention to this 

 point." 



After a few details about the common names of the 

 peach in different languages, I went on to say, " The 

 absence of Sanskrit and Hebrew names remains the most 

 important fact, whence we may infer an introduction 

 into Western Asia from a more distant land, that is to 

 say, from China. 



"The peach has been found wild in different parts 

 of Asia ; but it is always a question whether it is indige- 

 nous there, or whether it sprang from the dispersion of 

 stones produced by cultivated trees. The question is 

 the more necessary since the stones germinate easily, and 

 several of the modifications of the peach are hereditary.^ 

 Apparently wild peach trees have often been found in 

 the neighbourhood of the Caucasus. Pallas * saw several 

 on the banks of the Terek, where the inhabitants give 



^ Lonreiro, Fl. Cochin., p. 386. 



2 Ksempfer, Amcen., p. 798 ; Thunberg, Fl. Jap., p. 199. Ka?mpfer 

 and Thunberg also give the name momu, but Siebold (Fl. Jap., i. p. 29) 

 attributes a somewhat similar name, mume, to a plum tree, Prunus 

 mume, Sieb. and Z. 



3 Noisette, Jard. Fr., p. 77; Trans. Soc. Sort. Lond., iv. p. 513. 

 * Pallas, Fl. Rossica, p. 13. 



