14 MASSACHUSETTS HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



The Evolution and Variation of Fruit Plants ; their Ten- 

 dency TO Degenerate, when Cultivated. 



By Joseph H. Bourn, Ex-President of the Rhode Island Horticultural Society, 



Providence, R. I. 



Knowledge of fruit bearing plants that were on the earth before 

 the commencement of the historical era is very limited. Ancient 

 writers did not make us acquainted with species of fruits in 

 countries that had no literature or archaeological records ; and 

 information imparted without giving botanical facts would have 

 been of but little value in comparison with the more advanced 

 ideas of modern naturalists. Besides, biological science has 

 outgrown the views bequeathed to us by Aristotle, Theophras- 

 tus and Galen. There is no record how long the impenetrable 

 forests of date palms have been growing in the solitary wilds of 

 Arabia, or how early the wild pomegranate blossomed in the green 

 gloom of the woods of Asia Minor ; but burnt apples and pears, 

 cherry stones and beech nuts, have been found in the lake dwell- 

 ings of Lombardy, Savoy, and Switzerland ; seeds of grapes have 

 been discovered near Parama and in the remote settlements of 

 Lake Varese, and vine leaves in the tufa near the French city of 

 Montpelier. One of the oldest examples of fruits, is represented 

 in a drawing of figs found in the Egyptian pyramid of Gizeh. 

 Fig flowers are spoken of as offerings in the days of the Rameses ; 

 and woods of dates surrounded by pathways of red fruits, were 

 luxuriant ornaments in the temple gardens of Egypt. Peaches, 

 plums, currants, bananas, olives, gooseberries, and pineapples 

 were wild species long before they were brought under domestica- 

 tion ; and although no traces of our fruits proper have ever been 

 discovered in the primary and secondary fossiliferous periods, it 

 is probable that the vegetation which characterized the close of 

 the tertiary epoch was nearly identical with that existing at the 

 present day, under the same climatic conditions. During the age 

 of conifers, plum-like stone fruits resembling those of the yew 

 were deposited in sandstone beds of the upper coal formations. 

 Trees belonging to the genus Prunus have been discovered among 

 the Miocene plants. Figs are included among the Eocene ; and 

 although there are traces of the preservation of but few fruit 



