86 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



is described as flowering in America in the Arnold Arboretum as early 

 as 1888,^ seeds from which the trees grew having been sent from China. 

 Some ten or twelve years ago the species was distributed by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, trees being received at this Station in 

 the spring of 1906. Meanwhile, . agricultural explorers representing this 

 country in China have discovered that the species is much used by the 

 Chinese as a stock upon which to work other species of Prunus. Where- 

 upon, new distributions were made through seeds and plants to nearly 

 every fruit-growing state in the Union. We are, therefore, now able to 

 speak of the behavior of the Davidiana peach in America with some degree 

 of confidence as to its future as a stock for peaches. But, first, a word as 

 to its habitat and uses in China. 



The several importations of seeds recorded by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture seem all to have been made from the province 

 of Chili in China and from the cities of Pekin and Tientsin in the neighbor- 

 hood of which the tree is commonly found wild. According to Bret- 

 schneider,- the species was first discovered by Bunge near Peking in 1831 

 who took it to be an almond. The same authority says that Father David's 

 seeds came from wild trees growing in the mountains near Jehol, and that 

 the species is much cultivated in the gardens of Peking, there being two 

 varieties, one with rose-colored and the other with white flowers. At the 

 time of its introduction into Europe, it was considered, by some, the wild 

 form of the cultivated peach. The fruit of David's peach is not edible and 

 peach-growers would have but passing interest in the species as a very 

 attractive ornamental were it not for the fact that it is a common and 

 most valuable stock, used for centuries in China for several of the stone- 

 fruits. 



It is, then, with a view to its fitness as a stock that the Davidiana 

 peach must be discussed. Its characters in several respects indicate that 

 it may make an invaluable stock in America as it has long been in China. 

 For this purpose it seems possible to use it equally well for several stone- 

 fruits. 



As it grows on the Station grounds the most experienced fruit-grower 

 cannot guess whether Pninus davidiana is a peach, nectarine, almond, 

 apricot or plum. As we shall show later, too, it hybridizes with several 

 other species of its genus. Its similarities to all of these stone-fruits give 



^ Card, and For. 1:153. 1S88. 



- Bretschneidcr E. Bot. Explor. in China 2:860. i8g8. 



