PLANTS AND MAN 
sweet cherry spread all over Europe, and into all the 
temperate regions of the Old and the New World. 
Apple (Pyrus malus) : This most familiar and popular 
of all our orchard fruits has a history reaching into the 
mists of antiquity. Whether or not it was the fruit that 
tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, we know that the 
Lake Dwellers of Switzerland and Italy gathered wild 
apples in great quantities. It still grows wild throughout 
Europe, Asia Minor, and Persia. The colonists lost no 
time in introducing the cultivated varieties into America, 
where a wild crab-apple was indigenous. 
Pear (Pyrus communis) : The pear, a cousin of the 
apple, has a rather similar history. It still grows wild 
over the whole of temperate Europe and western Asia. 
The mural paintings of Pompeii frequently represent this 
tree- with its fruit. The finer cultivated varieties came to 
America with the apple. 
Plum (Prunus domestica) : The plum seems to have 
come from the Near East; it still grows wild in Asia 
Minor and northern Persia. It was early appreciated by 
mankind, and was introduced into Europe probably about 
two thousand years ago. 
Apricot (Prunus Armeniaca ): This relative of the 
plum seems to have made a far longer journey to reach 
us. The Chinese were familiar with it two or three thou- 
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