228 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



and to the south of the Caucasus, but he says nothing as 

 to their wild nature ; and Karl Koch/ after travelling 

 through this district, says, speaking of the peach, 

 '• Country unknown, perhaps Persia. Boissier saw trees 

 growing in the gorges on Mount Hymettus, near Athens." 



The peach spreads easily in the countries in which it 

 is cultivated, so that it is hard to say whether a given 

 tree is of natural origin and anterior to cultivation, or 

 whether it is naturalized. But it certainly was first culti- 

 vated in China ; it was spoken of there two thousand 

 years before its introduction into the Greco-Roman world, 

 a thousand years perhaps before its introduction into the 

 lands of the Sanskrit-speaking race. 



The group of peaches (genus or subgenus) is composed 

 of five forms, which Decaisne^ regards as species, but 

 which other botanists are inclined to call varieties. The 

 one is the common peach ; the second the nectarine, which 

 we know to be derived ; the third is the flattened peach 

 (P. jplatycarpa, Decaisne) cultivated in China ; and the 

 two last are indigenous in China (P. siinonii, Decaisne, 

 and P. Davidii, Carriere). It is, therefore, essentially a 

 Chinese gToup. 



It is diflicult, from all these facts, not to admit the 

 Chinese origin of the common peach, as I had formerly 

 inferred from more scanty data. Its arrival in Italy at 

 the beginning of the Christian era is now confirmed by 

 the absence of peach stones in the terra-mare or lake- 

 dwellings of Parma and Lombardy, and by the represen- 

 tations of the peach tree in the paintings on the waUs of 

 the richer houses in Pompeii.^ 



I have yet to deal with an opinion formerly expressed 

 by Knight, and supported by several horticulturists, that 

 the peach is a modification of the almond. Darwin * 

 collected facts in support of this idea, not omitting to 

 mention one which seems opposed to it. They may be 

 concisely put as follows : — (1) Crossed fertilization, which 



^ K. Koch, Bendrologie, i. p. 83. 



^ Decaisne, Jard. Fr. du Mus., Peckers, p. 42. 



^ Comes, Illus. Piante nei Dipinti Pompeiani, p. 14. 



* Darwin, Variation of Plants and Animals, etc., i. p. 338. 



