Historical Notes 3 



was separating himself from Abram because of the conten- 

 tion between their herdsmen.^ 



De Candolle's conviction that the peach originated in 

 China was expressed as early as 1855.^ In the following 

 thirty years, additional evidence tending to confirm his 

 earlier views has accumulated. Moreover, in his agricul- 

 tural explorations in northern and eastern China within 

 the past few years, for the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, Frank N. Meyer has discovered at least one 

 wild species of peach ^ (and possibly others) which may be 

 the prototype of the cultivated peach, thus strengthening 

 still further the probability of a Chinese origin. 



In his explorations in Hupeh and vSzechuan in western 

 China, E. H. Wilson found peaches commonly cultivated 

 from river-level to an altitude of 9000 feet. Not only are 

 they grown in orchards and about the houses, but they have 

 sprung up almost spontaneously in many places along the 

 roadsides and on cliffs where they have become practically 

 naturalized. Wilson also refers to the antiquity of the peach 

 in China and mentions the now commonly accepted view of 

 its origin in that country. It is his opinion, however, that 

 "the type of garden peach is no longer to be found in the 

 wild state,". "^ the nearest approach to it being, in his judg- 

 ment, the subspontaneous form naturalized along the road- 

 sides and other places in the provinces above named. 



L. H. Bailey found the peach wild in the mountains sepa- 

 rating the drainage of the Yang-Tze and Hwai-Ho rivers, 



1 Genesis 13 : 1-13. 



2De Candolle, Alphonse, "Origin of Cultivated Plants" (1844 

 English Translation) p. 221. 



' Yearbook of the U. S. Dept. of Agr. for 1915, p. 218. 



* (Wilson, E. H., "A Naturalist in western China," II, p. 26; 

 also, "Plantas Wilsonianae," Part I, p. 273). 



