240 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



Saporta^ as a variety of the modern Punica granatum, 

 have been discovered in the pliocene strata of the environs 

 of Meximieux. The species, therefore, existed under this 

 form, before our epoch, along with several species, some 

 extinct, others still existing in the south of Europe, and 

 others in the Canaries, but the continuity of existence 

 down to our own day is not thereby proved. 



To conclude, botanical, historical, and philological 

 data agree in showing that the modern species is a native 

 of Persia and some adjacent countries. Its cultivation 

 began in prehistoric time, and its early extension, first 

 towards the west and afterwards into China, has caused 

 its naturalization in cases which may give rise to errors 

 as to its true origin, for they are frequent, ancient, and 

 enduring. I arrived at these conclusions in 1869,* which 

 has not prevented the repetition of the erroneous African 

 origin in several works. 



Eose Apple — Eugenia Jamhos, Linnseus; Jambosa 

 vulgaris, de CandoUe. 



This small tree belongs to the family of Myrtacese. It is 

 cultivated in tropical regions of the old and new worlds, 

 as much perhaps for the beauty of its foliage as for its 

 fruit, of which the rose-scented pulp is too scanty. There 

 is an excellent illustration and a good description of it in 

 the Botanical Magazine, pi. 3356. The seed is poisonous.^ 



As the cultivation of this species is of ancient date 

 in Asia, there was no doubt of its Asiatic origin; 

 but the locality in which it grew wild was formerly 

 unknown. Loureiro's assertion that it grew in Cochin- 

 China and some parts of India required confirmation, 

 which has been afforded by some modern writers.* The 

 jamhos is wild in Sumatra, and elsewhere in the islands 

 of the Malay Archipelago. Kurz did not meet with it in 

 the forests of British Burmah, but when Rheede saw 

 this tree in gardens in Malabar he noticed that it was 

 called Malacca-schambu, which shows that it came origi- 



' De Saporta, Bull. Soc. G4ol. de France, April 5, 1863, pp. 767-769. 

 Giogr. Bot. Bais., p. 191. 



* Descourtilz, More MMicale des Antilles, v. pi. 315. 



* Miquel, Bmnabra, p. 118 ; Mora Indias-Batavce, i. p. 425 BlumOj 

 iluseum Lugd.-Bat., 1. p. 93. 



