384 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



varieties which have not been so highly improved by cultivation 



and selection. 

 Pliny recounted that the jujube was brought from Syria to 



Rome by the consul Sextus Papinius, towards the end of the 



reign of Augustus. It has, therefore, been known in southern 



Europe for more than 

 2000 years. It reached 

 America some time dur- 

 ing the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, but only in the 

 form of seedlings which 

 yielded fruit of poor 

 quality. With the in- 

 troduction of the grafted 

 Chinese varieties, ob- 

 tained in 1906 and sub- 

 sequent years by the 

 United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, 

 the jujube has become 

 a fruit-tree worthy of 

 the serious attention of 

 horticulturists, and this 

 it is now receiving 

 throughout the south- 

 ern and western parts 

 of the United States. 

 The botanv of this 



FIG. 50. The langtsao, or "melting jujube" 

 (Ziziphus Jujuba) , from the Province of Shensi, 

 China, now grown in California. The Chinese 

 varieties of the jujube are better than those of 

 other countries. (X i) 



fruit is decidedly confused. Two species are cultivated in the 

 Orient, differing but little from each other in botanical or 

 horticultural characteristics. The Chinese jujube (Fig. 50) 

 is considered to be Zizyphus Jujuba, Miller (Z. vulgaris, Lam., 

 Z. sativa, Gaertn.), and the Indian jujube, Zizyphus mauritiana, 

 Lam. (Z. Jujuba, Lam.). The principal difference between 



