214 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



inferred that its half-wild or half-naturalized state dates 

 in Europe from two thousand years at most. 



Prunes and damsons are ranked with this species. 



BuUace — Prunus insititia, Linnaeus ;^ P/lauenhaum 

 and Haferschlehen in German. 



This kind of plum grows wild in the south of Europe.^ 

 It has also been found in Cilicia, Armenia, to the south 

 of the Caucasus, and in the province of Talj^sch near the 

 Caspian Sea.^ It is especially in Turkey in Europe and 

 to the south of the Caucasus that it appears to be truly 

 wild. In Italy and in Spain it is perhaps less so, 

 although trustworthy authors who have seen the plant 

 growing have no doubt about it. In the localities 

 named north of the Alps, even as far as Denmark, it is 

 probably naturalized from cultivation. The species is 

 commonly found in hedges not far from dwellings, and 

 apparently not truly wild. 



All this agrees with archaeological and historical data. 

 The ancient Greeks distinguished the Coccumelea of their 

 country from those of Syria,* whence it is inferred that 

 the former were Prunus insititia. This seems the more 

 likely that the modern Greeks call it corooneleia.^ The 

 Albanians say coi^omhile,^ which has led some people to 

 suppose an ancient Pelasgian origin. For the rest, we 

 must not insist upon the common names of the plum 

 which each nation may have given to one or another 

 species, perhaps also to some cultivated variety, without 

 any rule. The names which have been much commented 

 upon in learned works generally, appear to me to apply 

 to any plum or plum tree without having any very 

 defined meaning. 



No stones of P. insititia have yet been found in 



* Insititia — foreign. A curious name, since every plant is foreign to 

 all countries bnt its own. 



* Willkomm and Lange, Prodr. Fl. Hisp., iii. p. 244 ; Bertoloni, Fl. Ital., 

 V. p. 135; Grisebach, /S^iceL Fl.Rumel.,-p,85i Heldreich, Nv.tzpfl. Griech.^ 

 p. 68. 



■ Boissier, J7. Orient., ii. p. 651 ; Ledebour, Fl. Ross., ii. p. 5 ; Hohen. 

 acker, PI. Talysch, p. 128. 



* Dioscorides, p. 173 ; Fraas, Fl. Class., p. 69. 



* Heldreich, Nutzpjlanzen Griechenlands, p. 68. • Ihid. 



