STURTEV ant's NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 463 



seems to have reached Ettrope at about the commencement of the Christian era. 

 Dioscorides/ who flourished about 60 A. D., speaks of the peach, and Pliny,'^ A. D. 79, 

 expressly states that it was import;ed by the Romans from Persia not long before. He also 

 adds that this tree was brought from Egypt to the Isle of Rhodes, where it could never 

 be made to produce fruit, and thence to Italy. He says it was not then a common 

 fruit in Greece.' At this time, fiom two to five varieties alone were known and the 

 nectarine was unknown. '^ No mention is made of the peach by Cato,^ 201 B. C, and 

 Columella,' 42 A. D., speaks of it as being cultivated in France. In China, De Candolle ' 

 says its culture dates to a remote antiquity and the Chinese have a multitude of super- 

 stitious ideas and legends about the properties of the different varieties, whose number 

 is very large. He also says the peach is mentioned in the books of Confucius, fifth century 

 before Christ, and it is represented in sculpture and on porcelain. Brandis ' says the 

 cultivation of the peach in China has been traced back to the tenth centtuy, B. C. 



The peach is raised with such facility from the stone that its diffusion along routes 

 of commimication must necessarily have been very rapid. If its origin is to be ascribed 

 to China, the stones may have been carried with the caravans into Kashmir or Bokhara 

 and Persia between the time of the Sanscrit emigration and the intercourse of the Persians 

 with the Greeks. It is quite possible that the long delay in its diffusion was caused by 

 the inferior qtiality of the peach in its first deviation over that which it possesses at present. 

 The peach was introduced from China into Cochin China and Japan.'" Mcintosh " says 

 it reached England about the middle of the sixteenth century, probably from France. 

 Peach stones were among the seeds ordered by the Governor and Company for the 

 Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England in 1629.'^ About 1683, Stacy,*' writing from 

 New Jersey, said " we have peaches by cart loads." A Description of New Albion,^* 1648, 

 records, " Peaches better than apricocks by some doe feed Hogs, one man hath ten 

 thousand trees." Hilton '* says of Florida, 1664, " The coimtry abounds with Grapes, large 

 Figs, and Peaches." WiUiam Penn,'' in a letter dated Aug. 16, 1683, says of Philadelphia, 

 " There are also very good peaches, and in great quantities; not an Indian plantation 



' De Candolle, A. Geog. Bo/. 2:881. 1855. 



* U. S. Pal. Off. Rpt. 283. 1853. 

 ' Ibid. 



* Targioni-Tozzetti Journ. Hort. Soc. Land. 9:167. 1855. 



De Candolle, A. Ceog. Bot. 2:885. 1855. {Amygdalus persica) 

 ' U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 283. 1853. 

 ' Ibid. 



* De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:883. 1855. (Amygdalus persica) 

 Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 191. 1874. 



'" De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:883. i 855. (Amygdalus persica) 



" Mcintosh, C. Book Card. 2:485. 1855. (Amygdalus persica) 



" U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 284. 1853. 



" Watson Annals Phil. 18. 1856. 



" Desc. New Albion ii. 1648. Force Coll. Tracts 2: No. 7. 1838. 



"Hilton Rel. Disc. Fla. 8. 1664. Force Coll. Tracts 4:No. 2. 1846. 



" Watson Annals Phil. 63. 1856. 



