THE STONELESS PLUM 



shell has been developed until it is veritably 

 stone-like in texture. 



Just why this extraordinary development of 

 the protective seed covering was necessary or 

 advantageous in the case of this particular tribe 

 of plants, it would perhaps be difficult to say. 



It is altogether probable that the original pro- 

 genitor of the family of stone-fruits grew in central 

 Asia. I have received from that region a shrub 

 that may perhaps be regarded as the prototype of 

 the entire race of the stone-fruits— not perhaps 

 the direct progenitor, but an early offshoot from 

 the ancestral stock which has remained in the 

 original environment and has not, perhaps, very 

 markedly changed from the original state during 

 the hundreds of generations in which the other 

 branches of the family were spreading southward 

 and westward across Asia and Europe. 



If we could know just what the enemies of the 

 primitive Asiatic stock of the stone-fruits were 

 like, we could perhaps surmise the reason for the 

 development of the unusual seed-cover. 



Perhaps the stone was necessary to protect 

 the kernel from the teeth of monkeys or primitive 

 men; perhaps it was more particularly needed as 

 a protection against climatic conditions, to ensure 

 preservation during semi-arctic winters; or to 

 keep vitality in the kernel during protracted 



[115] 



