28 



Annals of Horticulture. 



4. Oriental Fruits. 



It has long been known that the ornamental plants of Japan 

 and some parts of China are peculiarly well adapted to the soil 

 and climate of the Atlantic States. In fact, the floras of those 

 countries are in many respects remarkably similar to that of 

 our Alleghany region. The nature of these similarities and 

 the reasons for them were long ago presented in a striking 

 generalization by Asa Gray. Our Pacific coast flora has fewer 

 affinities with our eastern flora than the eastern has with the 

 Japanese. We should expect that our eastern pomology 

 must derive many acquisitions from Japan and northern 

 China, and such is notably the case, particularly if we consider 

 the very recent period in which the most important introduc- 

 tions have been made. Yet the kinds are fewer and less var- 

 ious than we are led to expect from our experience with orien- 

 tal ornamentals. Comparatively few of them are adapted to 

 the Northern states, and such as are hardy are little known : 

 Prunus Simoni is hardy even in Canada and Iowa ; certain 

 Chinese peaches and apricots give promise in the north ; off- 

 spring of the Japanese or Chinese pears possess more or less 

 value in the northern and central states, and the northern 

 limits of profitable culture of the Japanese plums are not de- 

 termined. Mr. Charles Gibb, of the province of Quebec, 

 well known through his knowledge of fruits in the extreme 

 north, is now traveling in Asia with the hope of finding, par- 

 ticularly in Mandchuria, fruits of great hardiness. We shall 

 at least hope to learn how much we are to expect from these 

 countries. In the meantime, it may be useful to make an in- 

 ventory of our fruits of oriental origin. 



To southern horticulture, several of the Japanese and Chi- 

 nese fruits have already come to be of commercial value. 

 The Japanese persimmon, or Kaki (Diospyros Kaki), is proba- 

 bly the most important. "Nine fruiting seasons just 

 passed," writes Mr. Berckmans, "have satisfactorily settled 

 the question as to the value of this fruit for the cotton-grow- 

 ing belt of the southern states, where the tree is perfectly 

 hardy. The merits of this fruit are the early bearing age of 

 the trees, as well as wonderful fertility, as it is quite common 

 to see one-year-old trees planted in spring produce a crop of 

 from twenty to fifty well-developed persimmons the following 



