f)'28 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of the apparently true D. Kaki growing wild, and this bore small 

 greenish-yellow fruits of an unpleasant flavour, with imperfect seeds. 

 As a stock D. Lotus gives to its host a longer life than the native 

 American persimmon seems to do, trees being found in China that are 

 centuries old and still, very productive (pp. 10-16). 



Peaches are the most highly appreciated fruit of Northern China. 

 Three important strains have been developed, and it is asserted that 

 some of the most valuable commercial kinds in the United States are 

 of Chinese origin, having proved more successful in the South than 

 the varieties introduced from Europe. The thriftiest and healthiest 

 peach trees are always seen at the foot of a mountain, growing in 

 decomposed rocky or sandy soil, and there the fruit is of a much finer 

 flavour than when grown on low, rich land. In the peach orchards 

 seedlings and budded trees are mixed, and varieties are innumerable. 

 A small-fruited variety grows in Kirin, Manchuria, where the ther- 

 mometer sometimes drops to -40° F, It is suggested that the 

 hybridization of this and other varieties of these cold climates may make 

 it possible to raise hardier peaches for districts subject to severe winters. 

 Bud-wood of peaches, however, is difficult to convey long distances, as : 

 the buds become spoiled, though the wood remains green and healthy, j 

 Though it is disputed whether China is the original home of Amygdalu's 

 Persica, there is one native species, A. Davidiana, which the Chinese 

 use as a stock for almost all stone fruits. It is remarkably drought- 

 resistant, and preliminary experiments show that it thrives equally 

 well in Iowa and Texas (pp. 16-19). 



Apricots (vars. of Prunus Armeniaca) are extensively cultivated, 

 being grafted or budded upon seedling apricots or the wild peach 

 referred to above. The apricots of Shantung are famous, there being 

 several very good varieties. There is a strain in Chihli which has sweet 

 edible kernels which are sold as almonds (p. 53), but the writer has 

 never seen a true almond tree in China. The wild apricot is very 

 common in Northern China and Korea, and even occurs in Eastern 

 Siberia, sometimes as a shrubby form and sometimes as a tree, one 

 specimen being found in Korea which was forty feet high and with a 

 trunk ten feet in circumference. The fruit is small and worthless, but i 

 it might be valuable as a stock or for hybridization. Some of the i 

 Asiatic apricots have proved hardy at Boston, Mass., and in the trying ' 

 climate of Wisconsin (pp. 20-22). 



Plums {Prunus sp.) are not very highly esteemed in China, but , 

 Shantung produces some good varieties, and there are some very hardy j 

 kinds in Northern Korea and Eastern Siberia. One fruit is grown, | 

 which is possibly a hybrid between the apricot and the peach, though i 

 it is sour, like a plum, while another kind of fruit, found at its best , 

 in Shantung, is the plumcot, or plum-apricot, which is large, red, ; 

 sweet, and aromatic (p. 22). | 



Cherries. — The most common in Northern China are the " bush j 

 cherries " {Prunus tomentosa), which are usually budded and grafted! 

 on the wild peacli {A. Davidiana), upon which they make even faster 



