824 
"Taoism from early days has taken the peach as its 
particular fruit, signifying longevity, much as the apples 
of Hesperides were symbolic in the Grecian mythology. 
"Furthermore peach stones are often made into rosa- 
ries which are considered specially fine. There is a col- 
lection of tales by one Cornaby to be found in almost 
every library called 'A String of Peach Stones.' And a 
host of legends cluster around the tale of Sun, the stone 
monkey, eating the peaches of immortality stolen from the 
gardens of the genii, whereby he attains immortality. 
This theme is seen elaborated in many scenes , that deco- 
rate pottery, textiles, and congratulatory scrolls. 
"I wish that I were not tied down so much by tedious 
detail in the medical work, as there is a most interesting 
book that needs to be translated telling much of the folk 
lore of the peach interwoven with the plot, which is sup- 
posed to be the journey of Hsien tsang to bring back the 
sacred sutras of Buddha from India. It is said that this 
is an actual historic occurrence, but this tale is evi- 
dently semi-religious and allegorical, as well, combining 
in itself the characteristics of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Arabian Nights, if 
you can imagine such a mixture, yet giving graphic pic- 
tures of Chinese life in various phases that are as true 
as when the book was written. 
"However this is wandering far from the subject in 
hand, of the true type of the peaches of the north China 
group. I will make further inquiries of gardeners and 
orchardists as I have opportunity, but I think you may 
feel pretty sure, the fruit-bearing kinds are the white- 
flowered small kinds, and the large pure white are only 
for ornament; often they are grown so large and full as to 
be like small roses. But why here in the north the white 
should predominate I am puzzled, unless the symbolism has 
something to do with it, for I recollect that both in west 
and south China and Japan the large double cerise colored 
peach blooms were quite common. In Japan the single pink 
large flowered variety was sold quite as freely as the 
white, but I do not have any clear recollection of this 
light pink being doubled in any profusion, and certainly 
since my residence here in north China I have not seen any 
double light pink peach flowers, though the generally ac- 
cepted idea is that the peach flower is pink. Maybe it 
does not lend itself so readily to the doubling process as 
the white or cerise varieties, but there is very evidently 
a prejudice against the pink colored ones, nearly all the 
distinctly pink flowers being apricots, against which, 
strange to say, there is no prejudice. 
"One of the most charming legends of peach flower 
lore is that of the 'Peach Blossom Fountain,' an allegory 
