of the Hmalayan Mountains a7id of Cashmere. 14<7 



of the jRosacege are possessed of deleterious properties ; but many are remark- 

 able for producing the most delicious fruits, both in Europe and Asia. Of 

 most of these, the native country is not well ascertained ; but in Europe we 

 point to the s.e., and in India to the n.w., as their native country. Thus, in 

 India, Caubul and Cashmere j and, in Europe, Pontus and Armenia, are con- 

 sidered as the native countries of the same fruits, which the ancients generally 

 named from the places whence they were procured. Thus, we have Cerasus 

 and Persica, Jrmeniaca, and Cydonia mala. In India, however, the languages 

 being more analogous, they adopt the names of the countries more to the 

 northward. But, as none of these fruits have been found wild in the plains of 

 these Asiatic countries, we must look to the mountains which run along their 

 whole extent, as their probable native sites, especially as we shall there find 

 most of the fruits alluded to, if not wild, yet in a high state of perfection, with 

 new species of the genera to which they belong. 



" Thus, the almond, peach, nectarine, apricot, plum, and cherry, with the 

 apple, pear, and quince, are all found, either in a wild or cultivated state, on 

 the ramifications of Taurus and Caucasus, Hindookhoosh and the Himalayas, 

 or on the valleys included within them. Most of them are enumerated by 

 Forster and Moorcroft, as being abundant in Cashmere, whence I introduced 

 them into the Mussooree Nursery. Mr. Elphinstone and Lieut. Burnes 

 inform us they abound in Peshawur and Caubul ; and by the latter, the peach, 

 apricot, cherry, plum, pear, apple, and quince are represented as abundant at 

 Bokhara, and other places on the north of the Hindookhoosh. In Kunawur, 

 on the north of the Himalaya, we have the apricot, peach, plum, and apple. 



" The almond, which, though flowering, does not ripen its fruit in N. 

 India, and of which both the sweet and bitter kinds are known and imported 

 into the northern parts from Ghoorbund, and into the southern parts of India 

 by the Persian Gulf, is so extensively cultivated in the south of Europe, in 

 Syria, and Barbary, that it is probable its native country may be further north 

 than others of the tribe, and therefore the north of Africa, as generally sup- 

 posed ; though it may also be found in the mountains of Asia. 



" The peach, introduced into Europe from Persia, a country in which the 

 fruit is very fine, and where both the free and clingstone varieties are known, 

 and called kulloo and kardee ; the general name for peach being, Persian, 

 aroo, and, Arabic, khookh. They ripen well, and are of a fine flavour in 

 Peshawur ; also, in the north of India, with the well-flavoured flat peach from 

 China. With care, it succeeds also in the elevated land of Mysore; it is 

 found wild in different parts of the Himalaj'as, as about Mussooree, at 

 elevations of 5000 ft. and 6000 ft. In the district of Bissehur there is a dis- 

 tinct kind, called hhemee by the natives (Persica maligna ?2o6.), which, though 

 small, is juicy and very sweet. The nectarine is found in gardens in Northern 

 India, where it is called shiifi-aloo, and moondla (smooth) aroo, though it does 

 not perfectly ripen its fruit, nor is it known from whence it was introduced, 

 though probably from Caubul. 



" The apricot is very abundant round almost every village in the Himalayas, 

 rendering it difficult to ascertain whether it be ever found wild, as the trees 

 remain the only vestiges of deserted villages. It has been supposed to be a 

 native of the Oases of Egypt, in consequence of its name (biirkook) being pro- 

 bably the original of the old term apricoke and Prsecocia ; but as that is its 

 name in the Arabic language, which prevails, like the apricot, over a great 

 extent of the Oriental region, the same name is likely to be everywhei'e ap- 

 plied to it. At Caubul it is said to be preserved in fourteen different ways, 

 with and without the stones, or the kernel left, or an almond substituted. 

 {Burnes.) It is generally brought in this state into Northern India, under 

 the name khoobanee ; the Arabic name is mishmish ; in Bokhara, where they 

 are particularly fine, they are called bakur-khanee. In the Himalayas, the 

 fruit is called zurd-aloo, chooloo, and cliinaroo. In Kunawur, the fruit is dried 

 on the tops of their houses, and, when pounded, mixed with their meal. It is 

 chiefly cultivated on account of the beautiful oil which is expressed from the 



M 4 



