214 OBIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



inferred that its h&lf-wild or half-natiiralized state dates 

 in Europe from two thousand years at most. 



Prunes and damsons are ranked with this species. 



BuUace — Prunus insititia, Linnaeus j^ PJlauenbaum 

 and Uaferachlehen in Geraian. ' 



This kind of plum grows wild in the south of Europe.^ 

 It has also been found in Cilicia, Armenia, to the south 

 of the Caucasus, and in the province of Talysch near the 

 Caspian Sea.* , It is especially in Turkey in Europe and 

 to the south of the Caucasus that it appears to be truly 

 wild. In Italy and in Spain it is perhaps less so, 

 although trustworthy authors who have seen the plant 

 growing haVe no doubt about it. , In the localities 

 named north of the Alps, even as far as Denmark, it is 

 probably Naturalized from cultivation. The^ species is 

 commonly found, in hedges not far from dwellings, and 

 apparently not truly wild. . s „ ., 



All this agrees with archfedlogical and historical data. 

 The ancient Greeks distinguished the Goccumelea of their 

 country from those of Syria,* whence it is inferred that 

 the former were PmnUs insiiitia. This seems thti more 

 likely that the modern Greeks call it' covcymdeia? The 

 Albanians say coromfciie,® which has led sbme peqileto 

 suppose an ancient Pelasgian origin. For the test;, we 

 must not insist upon the common naines of the plum- 

 which each nation may have given to one or another 

 species, perhaps also to some cultivated varietj^ without 

 any rule. The names which have been much commented 

 upon in learned works generally, appear to me to apply 

 to any plum or plani tree without having any very 

 defined meaning. , ■ 



No stones of P.msititia have yet been found in 



' Insiiitia = foreign. A curilpng name, since eveiy'plant is foreign to 

 all countries but its own. 



' Willkomm and Lange, Prod/r. Fl. Bisp., iii. p. 244 ; Bertoloni, J7. Ital, 

 V. p. 135; Grisebach, Sptcef. Fl.Rumel.,p. 85; Heldreich, Nutzpfl. Gi-iech., 

 p. 68. 



* Boissier, Fl. Orient, ii. p. 651 ; Ledebonr, FC Ross., ii. p. 5 j Hohen- 

 acker, PI. Talysch,-p..i28. 



* Dioscorides,'p.:ij3; Frsias, Fl. Class., -p. 69. 



' Heldreich, Nutepjlanzen Giiecheiilands, p. 68. * Ihid. 



