THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



Britain it was introduced by the Romans, but in 

 England it was not much cultivated before the i6th 

 century. The Spanish introduced it into South Amer- 

 ica. 1 1 has been planted in the more temperate parts 

 of Africa (the famous missionary-traveller, Livings- 

 ton, planted it by the Victoria Falls on the Zambesi 

 River), and in Australasia; indeed, no fruit tree is 

 now more widely grown. There is no need to tell 

 of the importance of the Peach industry in this 

 country, where probably high-class fruit is produced 

 in greater quantity than in any other land, but a 

 real desideratum is a Peach "bud hardy" in northern 

 New England. I think there is a possibility of 

 this being found through the medium of the Peach 

 which is semi-wild on the mountains west of Peking. 

 Two other species of Peach grow wild in China, 

 namely, P. Davidiana and P. mira. The first-named 

 is native of the cold northern provinces of China and 

 although the fruit is of no value the plant is favoured 

 in parts of this country as a stock for varieties of the 

 Common Peach. The other is native of the alpine 

 regions of the Chino-Thibetan borderland, where I 

 discovered it. It has a palatable white-fleshed fruit 

 and an exceedingly small, perfectly smooth stone. I 

 had high hopes of it being useful to the hybridist 

 when introducing it to the Arnold Arboretum in 

 1908, but apparently its alpine character is against 



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