THE PEACH AND NECTARINE. 137 



fruit would have spread sooner into Asia Minor and 

 Greece. The expedition of Alexander is probably what 

 made it known to Theophrastus, B.C. 322, who speaks 

 of it as a Persian fruit. . . . Admitting this to be 

 the country, how can it be explained that neither the 

 early Greeks, nor the Hebrews, nor the people who 

 speak Sanscrit, and who have all sprung from the upper 

 region of the Euphrates, had grown the peach-tree ? 

 On the contrary, it is very probable that the stones of 

 a fruit-tree cultivated from all antiquity in China may 

 have been carried across the mountains from the centre 

 of Asia into Cashmere or Bokhara and Persia. . . . 

 The cultivation of the peach-tree, once established at 

 this point, would easily extend, on one side towards 

 the west, and on the other by Cabul towards the north 

 of India. In support of the supposition of a Chinese 

 origin, it may be added that the peach was introduced 

 from China into Cochin China, and that the Japanese 

 call it by the Chinese name Too. The peach is men- 

 tioned in the books of Confucius, fifth century before 

 the Christian era ; and the antiquity of the knowledge 

 of the fruit in China is further proved by the represen- 

 tations of it on sculpture and on porcelain. The above 

 are some of the arguments adduced by Decandolle 

 against the commonly received opinion that the peach 

 originated in Persia." l 



The peach is very extensively and well cultivated 

 in China. In America it is grown in great abundance, 

 and is extensively used for making peach-brandy; and 

 in some of the States it is an important article of food 

 in a dried state. It is cultivated as a common standard 

 orchard- tree. The hot summers of the Western World 

 ripen the wood sufficiently to enable it to bear with 



1 Treasury of Botany. 



