PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 213 



from the days of Pliny. It is supposed that this was the 

 species referred to by Dioscorides 1 under the name of 

 Syrian coccumelea, growing at Damascus. Karl Koch 

 relates that the merchants trading on the borders of 

 China told him that the species was common in the 

 forests of the western part of the empire. It is true that 

 the Chinese have cultivated different kinds of plums 

 from time immemorial, but we do not know them well 

 enough to judge of them, and we cannot be sure that 

 they are indigenous. As none of our kinds of plum has 

 been found wild in Japan or in the basin of the river 

 Amur, it is very probable that the species seen in China 

 are different to ours. This appears also to be the result 

 of Bretschneider's statements. 2 



It is very doubtful if Prunus domestica is in- 

 digenous in Europe. In the south, where it is given, it 

 grows chiefly in hedges, near dwellings, with all the 

 appearance of a tree scarcely naturalized, and maintained 

 here and there by the constant bringing of stones from 

 plantations. Authors who have seen the species in the 

 East do not hesitate to say that it is " subspontaneous." 

 Fraas 8 affirms that it is not wild in Greece, and this is 

 confirmed as far as Attica is concerned by Heldreich. 4 

 Steven 5 says the same for the Crimea. If this is the 

 case near Asia Minor, it must be the more readily 

 admitted for the rest of Europe. 



In spite of the abundance of plums cultivated formerly 

 by the Romans, no kind is found represented in the 

 frescoes at Pompeii. 6 Neither has Primus domestica 

 been found among the remains of the lake-dwellings of 

 Italy, Switzerland, and Savoy, where, however, stones 

 of Prunus insititia and spinosa have been discovered. 

 From these facts, and the small number of words at- 

 tributable to this species in Greek authors, it may be 



Dioscorides, p. 174 



Bretschneider, On the Study, etc., p. 10. 

 Fraas, 8yn. Fl. Class., p. 69. 

 Heldreich, Pflanzen Attischen Ebene. 

 Steven, Verzeichniss Halbinseln, i. p. 172. 

 Comes, III. Piante Pompeiane. 



