PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS.[816]
+Sweet Sop, Sugar Apple+[817]—_Anona squamosa_, Linnæus. (In British
India, +Custard Apple+; but this is the name of _Anona muricata_ in
America.)
The original home of this and other cultivated Anonaceæ has been the
subject of doubts, which make it an interesting problem. I attempted to
resolve them in 1855. The opinion at which I then arrived has been
confirmed by the subsequent observations of travellers, and as it is
useful to show how far probabilities based upon sound methods lead to
true assertions, I will transcribe what I then said,[818] mentioning
afterwards the more recent discoveries.
“Robert Brown proved in 1818 that all the species of the genus Anona,
excepting _Anona senegalensis_, belong to America, and none to Asia.
Aug. de Saint-Hilaire says that, according to Vellozo, _A. squamosa_ was
introduced into Brazil, that it is known there under the name of
_pinha_, from its resemblance to a fir-cone, and of _ata_, evidently
borrowed from the names _attoa_ and _atis_, which are those of the same
plant in Asia, and which belong to Eastern languages. Therefore, adds de
Saint-Hilaire,[819] the Portuguese transported _A. squamosa_ from their
Indian to their American possessions, etc.”
Having made in 1832 a review of the family of the Anonaceæ,[820] I
noticed how Mr. Brown’s botanical argument was ever growing stronger;
for in spite of the considerable increase in the number of described
Anonaceæ, no Anona, nor even any species of Anonaceæ with united
ovaries, had been found to be a native of Asia. I admitted[821] the
probability that the species came from the West Indies or from the
neighbouring part of the American continent; but I inadvertently
attributed this opinion to Mr. Brown, who had merely indicated an
American origin in general.[822]
Facts of different kinds have since confirmed this view.
“_Anona squamosa_ has been found wild in Asia, apparently as a
naturalized plant; in Africa, and especially in America, with all the
conditions of an indigenous plant. In fact, according to Dr. Royle,[823]
the species has been naturalized in several parts of India; but he only
saw it apparently growing wild on the side of the mountain near the fort
of Adjeegurh in Bundlecund, among teak trees. When so remarkable a tree,
in a country so thoroughly explored by botanists, has only been
discovered in a single locality beyond the limits of cultivation, it is
most probable that it is not indigenous in the country. Sir Joseph
Hooker found it in the isle of St. Iago, of the Cape Verde group,
forming woods on the hills which overlook the valley of St.
Domingo.[824] Since _A. squamosa_ is only known as a cultivated plant on
the neighbouring continent;[825] as it is not even indicated in Guinea
by Thonning,[826] nor in Congo,[827] nor in Senegambia,[828] nor in
Abyssinia and Egypt, which proves a recent introduction into Africa;
lastly, as the Cape Verde Isles have lost a great part of their
primitive forests, I believe that this is a case of naturalization from
seed escaped from gardens. Authors are agreed in considering the species
wild in Jamaica. Formerly the assertions of Sloane[829] and Brown[830]
might have been disregarded, but they are confirmed by Macfadyen.[831]
Martius found the species wild in the virgin forests of Para.[832] He
even says, ‘_Sylvescentem in nemoribus paraensibus inveni_,’ whence it
may be inferred that these trees alone formed a forest.
Splitgerber[833] found it in the forests of Surinam, but he says, ‘_An
spontanea_?’ The number of localities in this part of America is
significant. I need not remind my readers that no tree growing elsewhere
than on the coast has been found truly indigenous at once in tropical
Asia, Africa, and America.[834] The result of my researches renders such
a fact almost impossible, and if a tree were robust enough to extend
over such an area, it would be extremely common in all tropical
countries.
“Moreover, historical and philological facts tend also to confirm the
theory of an American origin. The details given by Rumphius[835] show
that _Anona squamosa_ was a plant newly cultivated in most of the
islands of the Malay Archipelago. Forster does not mention the
cultivation of any Anonacea in the small islands of the Pacific.[836]
Rheede[837] says that _A. squamosa_ is an exotic in Malabar, but was
brought to India, first by the Chinese and the Arabs, afterwards by the
Portuguese. It is certainly cultivated in China and in
Cochin-China,[838] and in the Philippine Isles,[839] but we do not know
from what epoch. It is doubtful whether the Arabs cultivate it.[840] It
was cultivated in India in Roxburgh’s day;[841] he had not seen the wild
plant, and only mentions one common name in a modern language, the
Bengali _ata_, which is already in Rheede. Later the name
_gunda-gatra_[842] was believed to be Sanskrit, but Dr. Royle[843]
having consulted Wilson, the famous author of the Sanskrit dictionary,
touching the antiquity of this name, he replied that it was taken from
the _Sabda Chanrika_, a comparatively modern compilation. The names of
_ata_, _ati_, are found in Rheede and Rumphius.[844] This is doubtless
the foundation of Saint-Hilaire’s argument; but a nearly similar name is
given to _Anona squamosa_ in Mexico. This name is _ate_, _ahate di
Panucho_, found in Hernandez[845] with two similar and rather poor
figures which may be attributed either to _A. squamosa_, as Dunal[846]
thinks, or to _A. cherimolia_, according to Martius.[847] Oviedo uses
the name _anon_.[848] It is very possible that the name _ata_ was
introduced into Brazil from Mexico and the neighbouring countries. It
may also, I confess, have come from the Portuguese colonies in the East
Indies. Martius says, however, that the species was imported from the
West India Islands.[849] I do not know whether he had any proof of this,
or whether he speaks on the authority of Oviedo’s work, which he quotes
and which I cannot consult. Oviedo’s article, translated by
Marcgraf,[850] describes _A. squamosa_ without speaking of its origin.
“The sum total of the facts is altogether in favour of an American
origin. The locality where the species usually appears wild is in the
forests of Para. Its cultivation is ancient in America, since Oviedo is
one of the first authors (1535) who has written about this country. No
doubt its cultivation is of ancient date in Asia likewise, and this
renders the problem curious. It is not proved, however, that it was
anterior to the discovery of America, and it seems to me that a tree of
which the fruit is so agreeable would have been more widely diffused in
the old world if it had always existed there. Moreover, it would be
difficult to explain its cultivation in America in the beginning of the
sixteenth century, on the hypothesis of an origin in the old world.”
Since I wrote the above, I find the following facts published by
different authors:—
1. The argument drawn from the fact that there is no Asiatic species of
the genus Anona is stronger than ever. _A. Asiatica_, Linnæus, was based
upon errors (see my note in the _Géogr. Bot._, p. 862). _A. obtusifolia_
(Tussac, _Fl. des Antilles_, i. p. 191, pl. 28), cultivated formerly in
St. Domingo as of Asiatic origin, is also perhaps founded upon a
mistake. I suspect that the drawing represents the flower of one species
(_A. muricata_) and the fruit of another (_A. squamosa_). No Anona has
been discovered in Asia, but four or five are now known in Africa
instead of only one or two,[851] and a larger number than formerly in
America.
2. The authors of recent Asiatic floras do not hesitate to consider the
Anonæ, particularly _A. squamosa_, which is here and there found
apparently wild, as naturalized in the neighbourhood of cultivated
ground and of European settlements.[852]
3. In the new African floras already quoted, _A. squamosa_ and the
others of which I shall speak presently are always mentioned as
cultivated species.
4. McNab, the horticulturist, found _A. squamosa_ in the dry plains of
Jamaica,[853] which confirms the assertions of previous authors. Eggers
says[854] that the species is common in the thickets of Santa Cruz and
Virgin Islands. I do not find that it has been discovered wild in Cuba.
5. On the American continent it is given as cultivated.[855] However, M.
André sent me a specimen from a stony district in the Magdalena valley,
which appears to belong to this species and to be wild. The fruit is
wanting, which renders the matter doubtful. From the note on the ticket,
it is a delicious fruit like that of _A. squamosa_. Warming[856]
mentions the species as cultivated at Lagoa Santa in Brazil. It appears,
therefore, to be cultivated or naturalized from cultivation in Para,
Guiana, and New Granada.
In fine, it can hardly be doubted, in my opinion, that its original
country is America, and in especial the West India Islands.
+Sour Sop+—_Anona muricata_, Linnæus.
This fruit-tree,[857] introduced into all the colonies in tropical
countries is wild in the West Indies; at least, its existence has been
proved in the islands of Cuba, St. Domingo, Jamaica, and several of the
smaller islands.[858] It is sometimes naturalized on the continent of
South America near dwellings.[859] André brought specimens from the
district of Cauca in New Granada, but he does not say they were wild,
and I see that Triana (_Prodr. Fl. Granat._) only mentions it as
cultivated.
+Custard Apple+ in the West Indies, +Bullock’s Heart+ in the East
Indies—_Anona reticulata_, Linnæus.
This Anona, figured in Descourtilz, _Flore Médicale des Antilles_, ii.
pl. 82, and in the _Botanical Magazine_, pl. 2912, is wild in Cuba,
Jamaica, St. Vincent, Guadeloupe, Santa Cruz, and Barbados,[860] and
also in the island of Tobago in the Bay of Panama,[861] and in the
province of Antioquia in New Granada.[862] If it is wild in the
last-named localities as well as in the West Indies, its area probably
extends into several states of Central America and of New Granada.
Although the bullock’s heart is not much esteemed as a fruit, the
species has been introduced into most tropical colonies. Rheede and
Rumphius found it in plantations in Southern Asia. According to
Welwitsch, it has naturalized itself from cultivation in Angola, in
Western Africa,[863] and this has also taken place in British
India.[864]
+Chirimoya+—_Anona Cherimolia_, Lamarck.
The chirimoya is not so generally cultivated in the colonies as the
preceding species, although the fruit is excellent. This is probably the
reason that there is no illustration of the fruit better than that of
Feuillée (_Obs._, iii. pl. 17), while the flower is well represented in
pl. 2011 of the _Botanical Magazine_, under the name of _A. tripetala_.
In 1855, I wrote as follows, touching the origin of the species:[865]
“The chirimoya is mentioned by Lamarck and Dunal as growing in Peru; but
Feuillée, who was the first to speak of it,[866] says that it is
cultivated. Macfadyen[867] says it abounds in the Port Royal Mountains,
Jamaica; but he adds that it came originally from Peru, and must have
been introduced long ago, whence it appears that the species is
cultivated in the higher plantations, rather than wild. Sloane does not
mention it. Humboldt and Bonpland saw it cultivated in Venezuela and New
Granada; Martius in Brazil,[868] where the seeds had been introduced
from Peru. The species is cultivated in the Cape Verde Islands, and on
the coast of Guinea,[869] but it does not appear to have been introduced
into Asia. Its American origin is evident. I might even go further, and
assert that it is a native of Peru, rather than of New Granada or
Mexico. It will probably be found wild in one of these countries. Meyen
has not brought it from Peru.”[870]
My doubts are now lessened, thanks to a kind communication from M. Ed.
André. I may mention first, that I have seen specimens from Mexico
gathered by Botteri and Bourgeau, and that authors often speak of
finding the species in this region, in the West Indies, in Central
America, and New Granada. It is true, they do not say that it is wild.
On the contrary, they remark that it is cultivated, or that it has
escaped from gardens and become naturalized.[871] Grisebach asserts that
it is wild from Peru to Mexico, but he gives no proof. André gathered,
in a valley in the south-west of Ecuador, specimens which certainly
belong to the species as far as it can be asserted without seeing the
fruit. He says nothing as to its wild nature, but the care with which he
points out in other cases plants cultivated or perhaps escaped from
cultivation, leads me to think that he regards these specimens as wild.
Claude Gay says that the species has been cultivated in Chili from time
immemorial.[872] However, Molina, who mentions several fruit-trees in
the ancient plantations of the country, does not speak of it.[873]
In conclusion, I consider it most probable that the species is
indigenous in Ecuador, and perhaps in the neighbouring part of Peru.
+Oranges and Lemons+—_Citrus_, Linnæus.
The different varieties of citrons, lemons, oranges, shaddocks, etc.,
cultivated in gardens have been the subject of remarkable works by
several horticulturists, among which Gallesio and Risso[874] hold the
first rank. The difficulty of observing and classifying so many
varieties was very great. Fair results have been obtained, but it must
be owned that the method was wrong from the beginning, since the plants
from which the observations were taken were all cultivated, that is to
say, more or less artificial, and perhaps in some cases hybrids.
Botanists are now more fortunate. Thanks to the discoveries of
travellers in British India, they are able to distinguish the wild and
therefore the true and natural species. According to Sir Joseph
Hooker,[875] who was himself a collector in India, the work of
Brandis[876] is the best on the _Citrus_ of this region, and he follows
it in his flora. I shall do likewise in default of a monograph of the
genus, remarking also that the multitude of garden varieties which have
been described and figured for centuries, ought to be identified as far
as possible with the wild species.[877]
The same species, and perhaps others also, probably grow wild in
Cochin-China and in China; but this has not been proved in the country
itself, nor by means of specimens examined by botanists. Perhaps the
important works of Pierre, now in course of publication, will give
information on this head for Cochin-China. With regard to China, I will
quote the following passage from Dr. Bretschneider,[878] which is
interesting from the special knowledge of the writer:—“Oranges, of which
there are a great variety in China, are counted by the Chinese among
their wild fruits. It cannot be doubted that most of them are
indigenous, and have been cultivated from very early times. The proof of
this is that each species or variety bears a distinct name, besides
being in most cases represented by a particular character, and is
mentioned in the _Shu-king, Rh-ya_, and other ancient works.”
Men and birds disperse the seeds of Aurantiaceæ, whence results the
extension of its area, and its naturalization in all the warm regions of
the two worlds. It was observed[879] in America from the first century
after the conquest, and now groves of orange trees have sprung up even
in the south of the United States.
+Shaddock+—_Citrus decumana_, Willdenow.
I take this species first, because its botanical character is more
marked than that of the others. It is a larger tree, and this species
alone has down on the young shoots and the under sides of the leaves.
The fruit is spherical, or nearly spherical, larger than an orange,
sometimes even as large as a man’s head. The juice is slightly acid, the
rind remarkably thick. Good illustrations of the fruit may be seen in
Duhamel, _Traité des Arbres_, edit. 2, vii. pl. 42, and in Tussac,
_Flore des Antilles_, iii. pls. 17, 18. The number of varieties in the
Malay Archipelago indicates an ancient cultivation. Its original country
is not yet accurately known, because the trees which appear indigenous
may be the result of naturalization, following frequent cultivation.
Roxburgh says that the species was brought to Calcutta from Java,[880]
and Rumphius[881] believed it to be a native of Southern China.
Neither he nor modern botanists saw it wild in the Malay
Archipelago.[882] In China the species has a simple name, _yu_; but its
written character[883] appears too complicated for a truly indigenous
plant. According to Loureiro, the tree is common in China and
Cochin-China, but this does not imply that it is wild.[884] It is in the
islands to the east of the Malay Archipelago that the clearest
indications of a wild existence are found. Forster[885] formerly said of
this species, “very common in the Friendly Isles.” Seemann[886] is yet
more positive about the Fiji Isles. “Extremely common,” he says, “and
covering the banks of the rivers.”
It would be strange if a tree, so much cultivated in the south of Asia,
should have become naturalized to such a degree in certain islands of
the Pacific, while it has scarcely been seen elsewhere. It is probably
indigenous to them, and may perhaps yet be discovered wild in some
islands nearer to Java.
The French name, _pompelmouse_, is from the Dutch _pompelmoes_. Shaddock
was the name of a captain who first introduced the species into the West
Indies.[887]
+Citron, Lemon+—_Citrus medica_, Linnæus.
This tree, like the common orange, is glabrous in all its parts. Its
fruit, longer than it is wide, is surmounted in most of its varieties by
a sort of nipple. The juice is more or less acid. The young shoots and
the petals are frequently tinted red. The rind of the fruit is often
rough, and very thick in some sub-varieties.[888]
Brandis and Sir Joseph Hooker distinguish four cultivated varieties:—
1. _Citrus medica proper_ (_citron_ in English, _cedratier_ in French,
_cedro_ in Italian), with large, not spherical fruit, whose highly
aromatic rind is covered with lumps, and of which the juice is neither
abundant nor very acid. According to Brandis, it was called _vijapûra_
in Sanskrit.
2. _Citrus medica Limonum_ (_citronnier_ in French, _lemon_ in English).
Fruit of average size, not spherical, and abundant acid juice.
3. _Citrus medica acida_ (_C. acida_, Roxburgh). Lime in English. Small
flowers, fruit small and variable in shape, juice very acid. According
to Brandis, the Sanskrit name was _jambira_.
4. _Citrus medica Limetta_ (_C. Limetta_ and _C. Lumia_ of Risso), with
flowers like those of the preceding variety, but with spherical fruit
and sweet, non-aromatic juice. In India it is called the _sweet lime_.
The botanist Wight affirms that this last variety is wild in the
Nilgherry Hills. Other forms, which answer more or less exactly to the
three other varieties, have been found wild by several Anglo-Indian
botanists[889] in the warm districts at the foot of the Himalayas, from
Garwal to Sikkim, in the south-east at Chittagong and in Burmah, and in
the south-west in the western Ghauts and the Satpura Mountains. From
this it cannot be doubted that the species is indigenous in India, and
even under different forms of prehistoric antiquity.
I doubt whether its area includes China or the Malay Archipelago.
Loureiro mentions _Citrus medica_ in Cochin-China only as a cultivated
plant, and Bretschneider tells us that the lemon has Chinese names which
do not exist in the ancient writings, and for which the written
characters are complicated, indications of a foreign species. It may, he
says, have been introduced. In Japan the species is only a cultivated
one.[890] Lastly, several of Rumphius’ illustrations show varieties
cultivated in the Sunda Islands, but none of these are considered by the
author as really wild and indigenous to the country. To indicate the
locality, he sometimes used the expression “_in hortis sylvestribus_,”
which might be translated shrubberies. Speaking of his _Lemon sussu_
(vol. ii. pl. 25), which is a _Citrus medica_ with ellipsoidal acid
fruit, he says it has been introduced into Amboyna, but that it is
commoner in Java, “usually in forests.” This may be the result of an
accidental naturalization from cultivation. Miquel, in his modern flora
of the Dutch Indies,[891] does not hesitate to say that _Citrus medica_
and _C. Limonum_ are only cultivated in the archipelago.
The cultivation of more or less acid varieties spread into Western Asia
at an early date, at least into Mesopotamia and Media. This can hardly
be doubted, for two varieties had Sanskrit names; and, moreover, the
Greeks knew the fruit through the Medes, whence the name _Citrus
medica_. Theophrastus[892] was the first to speak of it under the name
of apple of Media and of Persia, in a phrase often repeated and
commented on in the last two centuries.[893] It evidently applies to
_Citrus medica_; but while he explains how the seed is first sown in
vases, to be afterwards transplanted, the author does not say whether
this was the Greek custom, or whether he was describing the practice of
the Medes. Probably the citron was not then cultivated in Greece, for
the Romans did not grow it in their gardens at the beginning of the
Christian era.
Dioscorides,[894] born in Cilicia, and who wrote in the first century,
speaks of it in almost the same terms as Theophrastus. It is supposed
that the species was, after many attempts,[895] cultivated in Italy in
the third or fourth century. Palladius, in the fifth century, speaks of
it as well established.
The ignorance of the Romans of the classic period touching foreign
plants has caused them to confound, under the name of _lignum citreum_,
the wood of _Citrus_, with that of _Cedrus_, of which fine tables were
made, and which was a cedar, or a _Thuya_, of the totally different
family of Coniferæ.
The Hebrews must have known the citron before the Romans, because of
their frequent relations with Persia, Media and the adjacent countries.
The custom of the modern Jews of presenting themselves at the synagogue
on the day of the Feast of Tabernacles, with a citron in their hand,
gave rise to the belief that the word _hadar_ in Leviticus signified
lemon or citron; but Risso has shown, by comparing the ancient texts,
that it signifies a fine fruit, or the fruit of a fine tree. He even
thinks that the Hebrews did not know the citron or lemon at the
beginning of our era, because the Septuagint Version translates _hadar_
by fruit of a fine tree. Nevertheless, as the Greeks had seen the citron
in Media and in Persia in the time of Theophrastus, three centuries
before Christ, it would be strange if the Hebrews had not become
acquainted with it at the time of the Babylonish Captivity. Besides, the
historian Josephus says that in his time the Jews bore Persian apples,
_malum persicum_, at their feasts, one of the Greek names for the
citron.
The varieties with very acid fruit, like _Limonum_ and _acida_, did not
perhaps attract attention so early as the citron, however the strongly
aromatic odour mentioned by Dioscorides and Theophrastus appears to
indicate them. The Arabs extended the cultivation of the lemon in Africa
and Europe. According to Gallesio, they transported it, in the tenth
century of our era, from the gardens of Oman into Palestine and Egypt.
Jacques de Vitry, in the thirteenth century, well described the lemon
which he had seen in Palestine. An author named Falcando mentions in
1260 some very acid “_lumias_” which were cultivated near Palermo, and
Tuscany had them also towards the same period.[896]
+Orange+—_Citrus Aurantium_, Linnæus (excl. var. γ); _Citrus
Aurantium_, Risso.
Oranges are distinguished from shaddocks (_C. decumana_) by the complete
absence of down on the young shoots and leaves, by their smaller fruit,
always spherical, and by a thinner rind. They differ from lemons and
citrons in their pure white flowers; in the fruit, which is never
elongated, and without a nipple on the summit; in the rind, smooth or
nearly so, and adhering but lightly to the pulp.
Neither Risso, in his excellent monograph of _Citrus_, nor modern
authors, as Brandis and Sir Joseph Hooker, have been able to discover
any other character than the taste to distinguish the sweet orange from
more or less bitter fruits. This difference appeared to me of such
slight importance from the botanical point of view, when I studied the
question of origin in 1855, that I was inclined, with Risso, to consider
these two sorts of orange as simple varieties. Modern Anglo-Indian
authors do the same. They add a third variety, which they call
_Bergamia_, for the bergamot orange, of which the flower is smaller, and
the fruit spherical or pyriform, and smaller than the common orange,
aromatic and slightly acid. This last form has not been found wild, and
appears to me to be rather a product of cultivation.
It is often asked whether the seeds of sweet oranges yield sweet
oranges, and of bitter, bitter oranges. It matters little from the point
of view of the distinction into species or varieties, for we know that
both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms all characters are more or
less hereditary, that certain varieties are habitually so, to such a
degree that they should be called races, and that the distinction into
species must consequently be founded upon other considerations, such as
the absence of intermediate forms, or the failure of crossed
fertilization to produce fertile hybrids. However, the question is not
devoid of interest in the present case, and I must answer that
experiments have given results which are at times contradictory.
Gallesio, an excellent observer, expresses himself as follows:—“I have
during a long series of years sown pips of sweet oranges, taken
sometimes from the natural tree, sometimes from oranges grafted on
bitter orange trees or lemon trees. The result has always been trees
bearing sweet fruit; and the same has been observed for more than sixty
years by all the gardeners of Finale. There is no instance of a bitter
orange tree from seed of sweet oranges, nor of a sweet orange tree from
the seed of bitter oranges.... In 1709, the orange trees of Finale
having been killed by frost, the practice of raising sweet orange trees
from seed was introduced, and every one of these plants produced the
sweet-juiced fruit.”[897]
Macfadyen,[898] on the contrary, in his _Flora of Jamaica_, says, “It is
a well-established fact, familiar to every one who has been any length
of time in this island, that the seed of the sweet orange very
frequently grows up into a tree bearing the bitter fruit, numerous
well-attested instances of which have come to my own knowledge. I am not
aware, however, that the seed of the bitter orange has ever grown up
into the sweet-fruited variety.... We may therefore conclude,” the
author judiciously goes on to say, “that the bitter orange was the
original stock.” He asserts that in calcareous soil the sweet orange may
be raised from seed, but that in other soils it produces fruits more or
less sour or bitter. Duchassaing says that in Guadeloupe the seeds of
sweet oranges often yield bitter fruit,[899] while, according to Dr.
Ernst, at Caracas they sometimes yield sour but not bitter fruit.[900]
Brandis relates that at Khasia, in India, as far as he can verify the
fact, the extensive plantations of sweet oranges are from seed. These
differences show the variable degree of heredity, and confirm the
opinion that these two kinds of orange should be considered as two
varieties, not two species.
I am, however, obliged to take them in succession, to explain their
origin and the extent of their cultivation at different epochs.
+Bitter Orange+—_Arancio forte_ in Italian, _bigaradier_ in French,
_pomeranze_ in German. _Citrus vulgaris_, Risso; _C. aurantium_ (var.
_bigaradia_), Brandis and Hooker.
It was unknown to the Greeks and Romans, as well as the sweet orange. As
they had had communication with India and Ceylon, Gallesio supposed that
these trees were not cultivated in their time in the west of India. He
had studied from this point of view, ancient travellers and geographers,
such as Diodorus Siculus, Nearchus, Arianus, and he finds no mention of
the orange in them. However, there was a Sanskrit name for the
orange—_nagarunga_, _nagrunga_.[901] It is from this that the word
orange came, for the Hindus turned it into _narungee_ (pron.
_naroudji_), according to Royle, _nerunga_ according to Piddington; the
Arabs into _narunj_, according to Gallesio, the Italians into _naranzi_,
_arangi_, and in the mediæval Latin it was _arancium_, _arangium_,
afterwards _aurantium_.[902] But did the Sanskrit name apply to the
bitter or to the sweet orange? The philologist Adolphe Pictet formerly
gave me some curious information on this head. He had sought in Sanskrit
works the descriptive names given to the orange or to the tree, and had
found seventeen, which all allude to the colour, the odour, its acid
nature (_danta catha_, harmful to the teeth), the place of growth, etc.,
never to a sweet or agreeable taste. This multitude of names similar to
epithets show that the fruit had long been known, but that its taste was
very different to that of the sweet orange. Besides, the Arabs, who
carried the orange tree with them towards the West, were first
acquainted with the bitter orange, and gave it the name _narunj_,[903]
and their physicians from the tenth century prescribed the bitter juice
of this fruit.[904] The exhaustive researches of Gallesio show that
after the fall of the Empire the species advanced from the coast of the
Persian Gulf, and by the end of the ninth century had reached Arabia,
through Oman, Bassora, Irak, and Syria, according to the Arabian author
Massoudi. The Crusaders saw the bitter orange tree in Palestine. It was
cultivated in Sicily from the year 1002, probably a result of the
incursions of the Arabs. It was they who introduced it into Spain, and
most likely also into the east of Africa. The Portuguese found it on
that coast when they doubled the Cape in 1498.[905] There is no ground
for supposing that either the bitter or the sweet orange existed in
Africa before the Middle Ages, for the myth of the garden of Hesperides
may refer to any species of the order _Aurantiaceæ_, and its site is
altogether arbitrary, since the imagination of the ancients was
wonderfully fertile.
The early Anglo-Indian botanists, such as Roxburgh, Royle, Griffith,
Wight, had not come across the bitter orange wild; but there is every
probability that the eastern region of India was its original country.
Wallich mentions Silhet,[906] but without asserting that the species was
wild in this locality. Later, Sir Joseph Hooker[907] saw the bitter
orange certainly wild in several districts to the south of the
Himalayas, from Garwal and Sikkim as far as Khasia. The fruit was
spherical or slightly flattened, two inches in diameter, bright in
colour, and uneatable, of mawkish and bitter taste (“if I remember
right,” says the author). _Citrus fusca_, Loureiro,[908] similar, he
says, to pl. 23 of Rumphius, and wild in Cochin-China and China, may
very likely be the bitter orange whose area extends to the east.
+Sweet Orange+—Italian, _Arancio dolce_; German, _Apfelsine_. _Citrus
Aurantium sinense_, Gallesio.
Royle[909] says that sweet oranges grow wild at Silhet and in the
Nilgherry Hills, but his assertion is not accompanied with sufficient
detail to give it importance. According to the same author, Turner’s
expedition gathered “delicious” wild oranges at Buxedwar, a locality to
the north-east of Rungpoor, in the province of Bengal. On the other
hand, Brandis and Sir Joseph Hooker do not mention the sweet orange as
wild in British India; they only give it as cultivated. Kurz does not
mention it in his forest flora of British Burmah. Further east, in
Cochin-China, Loureiro[910] describes a _C. Aurantium_, with
bitter-sweet (_acido-dulcis_) pulp, which appears to be the sweet
orange, and which is found both wild and cultivated in China and
Cochin-China. Chinese authors consider orange trees in general as
natives of their country, but precise information about each species and
variety is wanting on this head.
From the collected facts, it seems that the sweet orange is a native of
Southern China and of Cochin-China, with a doubtful and accidental
extension of area by seed into India.
By seeking in what country it was first cultivated, and how it was
propagated, some light may be thrown upon the origin, and upon the
distinction between the bitter and sweet orange. So large a fruit, and
one so agreeable to the palate as the sweet orange, can hardly have
existed in any district, without some attempts having been made to
cultivate it. It is easily raised from seed, and nearly always produces
the wished-for quality. Neither can ancient travellers and historians
have neglected to notice the introduction of so remarkable a fruit tree.
On this historical point Gallesio’s study of ancient authors has
produced extremely interesting results.
He first proves that the orange trees brought from India by the Arabs
into Palestine, Egypt, the south of Europe, and the east coast of
Africa, were not the sweet-fruited tree. Up to the fifteenth century,
Arab books and chronicles only mention bitter, or sour oranges. However,
when the Portuguese arrived in the islands of Southern Asia, they found
the sweet orange, and apparently it had not previously been unknown to
them. The Florentine who accompanied Vasco de Gama, and who published an
account of the voyage, says, “_Sonvi melarancie assai, ma tutte dolci_”
(there are plenty of oranges, but all sweet.) Neither this writer nor
subsequent travellers expressed surprise at the pleasant taste of the
fruit. Hence Gallesio infers that the Portuguese were not the first to
bring the sweet orange from India, which they reached in 1498, nor from
China, which they reached in 1518. Besides, a number of writers in the
beginning of the sixteenth century speak of the sweet orange as a fruit
already cultivated in Spain and Italy. There are several testimonies for
the years 1523, and 1525. Gallesio goes no further than the idea that
the sweet orange was introduced into Europe towards the beginning of the
fifteenth century;[911] but Targioni quotes from Valeriani a statute of
Fermo, of the fourteenth century, referring to citrons, sweet oranges,
etc.;[912] and the information recently collected from early authors by
Goeze,[913] about the introduction into Spain and Portugal, agrees with
this date. It therefore appears to me probable that the oranges imported
later from China by the Portuguese were only of better quality than
those already known in Europe, and that the common expressions, Portugal
and Lisbon oranges, are due to this circumstance.
If the sweet orange had been cultivated at a very early date in India,
it would have had a special name in Sanskrit; the Greeks would have
known it after Alexander’s expedition, and the Hebrews would have early
received it through Mesopotamia. This fruit would certainly have been
valued, cultivated, and propagated in the Roman empire, in preference to
the lemon, citron, and bitter orange. Its existence in India must,
therefore, be less ancient.
In the Malay Archipelago the sweet orange was believed to come from
China.[914] It was but little diffused in the Pacific Isles at the time
of Cook’s voyages.[915]
We come back thus by all sorts of ways to the idea that the sweet
variety of the orange came from China and Cochin-China, and that it
spread into India perhaps towards the beginning of the Christian era. It
may have become naturalized from cultivation in many parts of India and
in all tropical countries, but we have seen that the seed does not
always yield trees bearing sweet fruit. This defect in heredity in
certain cases is in support of the theory that the sweet orange was
derived from the bitter, at some remote epoch, in China or Cochin-China,
and has since been carefully propagated on account of its horticultural
value.
+Mandarin+—_Citrus nobilis_, Loureiro.
This species, characterized by its smaller fruit, uneven on the surface,
spherical, but flattened at the top, and of a peculiar flavour, is now
prized in Europe as it has been from the earliest times in China and
Cochin-China. The Chinese call it _kan_.[916] Rumphius had seen it
cultivated in all the Sunda Islands,[917] and says that it was
introduced thither from China, but it had not spread into India.
Roxburgh and Sir Joseph Hooker do not mention it, but Clarke informs me
that its culture has been greatly extended in the district of Khasia. It
was new to European gardens at the beginning of the present century,
when Andrews published a good illustration of it in the _Botanist’s
Repository_ (pl. 608).
According to Loureiro,[918] this tree, of average size, grows in
Cochin-China, and also, he adds, in China, although he had not seen it
in Canton. This is not very precise information as to its wild
character, but no other origin can be supposed. According to Kurz,[919]
the species is only cultivated in British Burmah. If this is confirmed,
its area would be restricted to Cochin-China and a few provinces in
China.
+Mangosteen+—_Garcinia mangostana_, Linnæus.
There is a good illustration in the _Botanical Magazine_, pl. 4847, of
this tree, belonging to the order Guttiferæ, of which the fruit is
considered one of the best in existence. It demands a very hot climate,
for Roxburgh could not make it grow north of twenty-three and a half
degrees of latitude in India,[920] and, transported to Jamaica, it bears
but poor fruit.[921] It is cultivated in the Sunda Islands, in the Malay
Peninsula, and in Ceylon.
The species is certainly wild in the forests of the Sunda Islands[922]
and of the Malay Peninsula.[923] Among cultivated plants it is one of
the most local, both in its origin, habitation, and in cultivation. It
belongs, it is true, to one of those families in which the mean area of
the species is most restricted.
+Mamey+, or +Mammee Apple+—_Mammea Americana_, Jacquin.
This tree, of the order Guttiferæ, requires, like the mangosteen, great
heat. Although much cultivated in the West Indies and in the hottest
parts of Venezuela,[924] its culture has seldom been attempted, or has
met with but little success, in Asia and Africa, if we are to judge by
the silence of most authors.
It is certainly indigenous in the forests of most of the West
Indies.[925] Jacquin mentions it also for the neighbouring continent,
but I do not find this confirmed by modern authors. The best
illustration is that in Tussac’s _Flore des Antilles_, iii. pl. 7, and
this author gives a number of details respecting the use of the fruit.
+Ochro+, or +Gombo+—_Hibiscus esculentus_, Linnæus.
The young fruits of this annual, of the order of Malvaceæ, form one of
the most delicate of tropical vegetables. Tussac’s _Flore des Antilles_
contains a fine plate of the species, and gives all the details a
_gourmet_ could desire on the manner of preparing the _caloulou_, so
much esteemed by the creoles of the French colonies.
When I formerly[926] tried to discover whence this plant, cultivated in
the old and new worlds, came originally, the absence of a Sanskrit name,
and the fact that the first writers on the Indian flora had not seen it
wild, led me to put aside the hypothesis of an Asiatic origin. However,
as the modern flora of British India[927] mentions it as “probably of
native origin,” I was constrained to make further researches.
Although Southern Asia has been thoroughly explored during the last
thirty years, no locality is mentioned where the _Gombo_ is wild or half
wild. There is no indication, even, of an ancient cultivation in Asia.
The doubt, therefore, lies between Africa and America. The plant has
been seen wild in the West Indies by a good observer,[928] but I can
discover no similar assertion on the part of any other botanist, either
with respect to the islands or to the American continent. The earliest
writer on Jamaica, Sloane, had only seen the species in a state of
cultivation. Marcgraf[929] had observed it in Brazilian plantations, and
as he mentions a name from the Congo and Angola country, _quillobo_,
which the Portuguese corrupted into _quingombo_, the African origin is
hereby indicated.
Schweinfurth and Ascherson[930] saw the plant wild in the Nile Valley in
Nubia, Kordofan, Senaar, Abyssinia, and in the Baar-el-Abiad, where,
indeed, it is cultivated. Other travellers are mentioned as having
gathered specimens in Africa, but it is not specified whether these
plants were cultivated or wild at a distance from habitations. We should
still be in doubt if Flückiger and Hanbury[931] had not made a
bibliographical discovery which settles the question. The Arabs call the
fruit _bamyah_, or _bâmiat_, and Abul-Abas-Elnabati, who visited Egypt
long before the discovery of America, in 1216, has distinctly described
the _gombo_ then cultivated by the Egyptians.
In spite of its undoubtedly African origin, it does not appear that the
species was cultivated in Lower Egypt before the Arab rule. No proof has
been found in ancient monuments, although Rosellini thought he
recognized the plant in a drawing, which differs widely from it
according to Unger.[932] The existence of one name in modern Indian
languages, according to Piddington, confirms the idea of its propagation
towards the East after the beginning of the Christian era.
+Vine+—_Vitis vinifera_, Linnæus.
The vine grows wild in the temperate regions of Western Asia, Southern
Europe, Algeria, and Marocco.[933] It is especially in the Pontus, in
Armenia, to the south of the Caucasus and of the Caspian Sea, that it
grows with the luxuriant wildness of a tropical creeper, clinging to
tall trees and producing abundant fruit without pruning or cultivation.
Its vigorous growth is mentioned in ancient Bactriana, Cabul, Kashmir,
and even in Badakkhan to the north of the Hindu Koosh.[934] Of course,
it is a question whether the plants found there, as elsewhere, are not
sprung from seeds carried from vineyards by birds. I notice, however,
that the most trustworthy botanists, those who have most thoroughly
explored the Transcaucasian provinces of Russia, do not hesitate to say
that the plant is wild and indigenous in this region. It is as we
advance towards India and Arabia, Europe and the north of Africa, that
we frequently find in floras the expression that the vine is
“subspontaneous,” perhaps wild, or become wild (_verwildert_ is the
expressive German term).
The dissemination by birds must have begun very early, as soon as the
fruit existed, before cultivation, before the migration of the most
ancient Asiatic peoples, perhaps before the existence of man in Europe
or even in Asia. Nevertheless, the frequency of cultivation, and the
multitude of forms of the cultivated grape, may have extended
naturalization and introduced among wild vines varieties which
originated in cultivation. In fact, natural agents, such as birds,
winds, and currents, have always widened the area of species,
independently of man, as far as the limits imposed in each age by
geographical and physical conditions, together with the hostile action
of other plants and animals, allow. An absolutely primitive habitation
is more or less mythical, but habitations successively extended or
restricted are in accordance with the nature of things. They constitute
areas more or less ancient and real, provided that the species has
maintained itself wild without the constant addition of fresh seed.
Concerning the vine, we have proofs of its great antiquity in Europe as
in Asia. Seeds of the grape have been found in the lake-dwellings of
Castione, near Parma, which date from the age of bronze,[935] in a
prehistoric settlement of Lake Varese,[936] and in the lake-dwellings of
Wangen, Switzerland, but in the latter instance at an uncertain
depth.[937] And, what is more, vine-leaves have been found in the tufa
round Montpellier, where they were probably deposited before the
historical epoch, and in the tufa of Meyrargue in Provence, which is
certainly prehistoric,[938] though later than the tertiary epoch of
geologists.[939]
A Russian botanist, Kolenati,[940] has made some very interesting
observations on the different varieties of the vine, both wild and
cultivated, in the country which may be called the central, and perhaps
the most ancient home of the species, the south of the Caucasus. I
consider his opinion the more important that the author has based his
classification of varieties with reference to the downy character and
veining of the leaves, points absolutely indifferent to cultivators, and
which consequently must far better represent the natural conditions of
the plant. He says that the wild vines, of which he had seen an immense
quantity between the Black and Caspian Seas, may be grouped into two
sub-species which he describes, and declares are recognizable at a
distance, and which are the point of departure of cultivated vines, at
least in Armenia and the neighbourhood. He recognized them near Mount
Ararat, at an altitude where the vine is not cultivated, where, indeed,
it could not be cultivated. Other characters—for instance, the shape
and colour of the grapes—vary in each of the sub-species. We cannot enter
here into the purely botanical details of Kolenati’s paper, any more
than into those of Regel’s more recent work on the genus _Vitis_;[941]
but it is well to note that a species cultivated from a very remote
epoch, and which has perhaps two thousand described varieties, presents
in the district where it is most ancient, and probably presented before
all cultivation, at least two principal forms, with others of minor
importance. If the wild vines of Persia and Kashmir, of Lebanon and
Greece, were observed with the same care, perhaps other sub-species of
prehistoric antiquity might be found. The idea of collecting the juice
of the grape and of allowing it to ferment may have occurred to
different peoples, principally in Western Asia, where the vine abounds
and thrives. Adolphe Pictet,[942] who has, in common with numerous
authors, but in a more scientific manner, considered the historical,
philological, and even mythological questions relating to the vine among
ancient peoples, admits that both Semitic and Aryan nations knew the use
of wine, so that they may have introduced it into all the countries into
which they migrated, into India and Egypt and Europe. This they were the
better able to do, since they found the vine wild in several of these
regions.
The records of the cultivation of the grape and of the making of wine in
Egypt go back five or six thousand years.[943] In the West the
propagation of its culture by the Phœnicians, Greeks, and Romans is
pretty well known, but to the east of Asia it took place at a late
period. The Chinese who now cultivate the vine in their northern
provinces did not possess it earlier than the year 122 B.C.[944]
It is known that several wild vines exist in the north of China, but I
cannot agree with M. Regel in considering _Vitis Amurensis_, Ruprecht,
the one most analogous to our vine, as identical in species. The seeds
drawn in the _Gartenflora_, 1861, pl. 33, differ too widely. If the
fruit of these vines of Eastern Asia had any value, the Chinese would
certainly have turned them to account.
+Common Jujube+—_Zizyphus vulgaris_, Lamarck.
According to Pliny,[945] the jujube tree was brought from Syria to Rome
by the consul Sextus Papinius, towards the end of the reign of Augustus.
Botanists, however, have observed that the species is common in rocky
places in Italy,[946] and that, moreover, it has not yet been found wild
in Syria, although it is cultivated there, as in the whole region
extending from the Mediterranean to China and Japan.[947]
The result of the search for the origin of the jujube tree as a wild
plant bears out Pliny’s assertion, in spite of the objections I have
just mentioned. According to plant collectors and authors of floras, the
species appears to be more wild and more anciently cultivated in the
east than in the west of its present wide area. Thus, in the north of
China, de Bunge says it is “very common and very troublesome (on account
of its thorns) in mountainous places.” He had seen the thornless variety
in gardens. Bretschneider[948] mentions the jujube as one of the fruits
most prized by the Chinese, who give it the simple name _tsao_. He also
mentions the two varieties, with and without thorns, the former
wild.[949] The species does not grow in the south of China and in India
proper, because of the heat and moisture of the climate. It is found
again wild in the Punjab, in Persia, and Armenia.
Brandis[950] gives seven different names for the jujube tree (or for its
varieties) in modern Indian languages, but no Sanskrit name is known.
The species was therefore probably introduced into India from China, at
no very distant epoch, and it must have escaped from cultivation and
have become wild in the dry provinces of the west. The Persian name is
_anob_, the Arabic _unab_. No Hebrew name is known, a further sign that
the species is not very ancient in the west of Asia.
The ancient Greeks do not mention the common jujube, but only another
species, _Zizyphus lotus_. At least, such is the opinion of the critic
and modern botanist, Lenz.[951] It must be confessed that the modern
Greek name _pritzuphuia_ has no connection with the names formerly
attributed in Theophrastus and Dioscorides to some Zizyphus, but is
allied to the Latin name _zizyphus_ (fruit _zizyphum_) of Pliny, which
does not occur in earlier authors, and seems to be rather of an Oriental
than of a Latin character. Heldreich[952] does not admit that the jujube
tree is wild in Greece, and others say “naturalized, half-wild,” which
confirms the hypothesis of a recent introduction. The same arguments
apply to Italy. The species may have become naturalized there after the
introduction into gardens mentioned by Pliny.
In Algeria the jujube is only cultivated or half-wild.[953] So also in
Spain. It is not mentioned in Marocco, nor in the Canary Isles, which
argues no very ancient existence in the Mediterranean basin.
It appears to me probable, therefore, that the species is a native of
the north of China; that it was introduced and became naturalized in the
west of Asia after the epoch of the Sanskrit language, perhaps two
thousand five hundred or three thousand years ago; that the Greeks and
Romans became acquainted with it at the beginning of our era, and that
the latter carried it into Barbary and Spain, where it became partially
naturalized by the effect of cultivation.
+Lotus Jujube+—_Zizyphus lotus_, Desfontaines.
The fruit of this jujube is not worthy of attention except from an
historical point of view. It is said to have been the food of the
lotus-eater, a people of the Lybian coast, of whom Herod and
Herodotos[954] have given a more or less accurate account. The
inhabitants of this country must have been very poor or very temperate,
for a berry the size of a small cherry, tasteless, or slightly sweet,
would not satisfy ordinary men. There is no proof that the lotus-eaters
cultivated this little tree or shrub. They doubtless gathered the fruit
in the open country, for the species is common in the north of Africa.
One edition of Theophrastus[955] asserts, however, that there were some
species of lotus without stones, which would imply cultivation. They
were planted in gardens, as is still done in modern Egypt,[956] but it
does not seem to have been a common custom even among the ancients.
For the rest, widely different opinions have been held touching the
lotus of the lotus-eaters,[957] and it is needless to insist upon a
point so obscure, in which so much must be allowed for the imagination
of a poet and for popular ignorance.
The jujube tree is now wild in dry places from Egypt to Marocco, in the
south of Spain, Terracina, and the neighbourhood of Palermo.[958] In
isolated Italian localities it has probably escaped from cultivation.
+Indian Jujube+[959]—_Zizyphus jujube_, Lamarck; _ber_ among the Hindus
and Anglo-Indians, _masson_ in the Mauritius.
This jujube is cultivated further south than the common kind, but its
area is equally extensive. The fruit is sometimes like an unripe cherry,
sometimes like an olive, as is shown in the plate published by Bouton in
Hooker’s _Journal of Botany_, i. pl. 140. The great number of known
varieties indicates an ancient cultivation. It extends at the present
day from Southern China, the Malay Archipelago, and Queensland, through
Arabia and Egypt as far as Marocco, and even to Senegal, Guinea, and
Angola.[960] It grows also in Mauritius, but it does not appear to have
been introduced into America as yet, unless perhaps into Brazil, as it
seems from a specimen in my herbarium.[961] The fruit is preferable to
the common jujube, according to some writers.
It is not easy to know what was the habitation of the species before all
cultivation, because the stones sow themselves readily and the plant
becomes naturalized outside gardens.[962] If we are guided by its
abundance in a wild state, it would seem that Burmah and British India
are its original abode. I have in my herbarium several specimens
gathered by Wallich in the kingdom of Burmah, and Kurz has often seen it
in the dry forests of that country, near Ava and Prome.[963] Beddone
admits the species to be wild in the forests of British India, but
Brandis had only found it in the neighbourhood of native
settlements.[964] In the seventeenth century Rheede[965] described this
tree as wild on the Malabar coast, and botanists of the sixteenth
century had received it from Bengal. In support of an Indian origin, I
may mention the existence of three Sanskrit names, and of eleven other
names in modern Indian languages.[966]
It had been recently introduced into the eastern islands of the Amboyna
group when Rumphius was living there,[967] and he says himself that it
is an Indian species. It was perhaps originally in Sumatra and in other
islands near to the Malay Peninsula. Ancient Chinese authors do not
mention it; at least Bretschneider did not know of it. Its extension and
naturalization to the east of the continent of India appear, therefore,
to have been recent.
Its introduction into Arabia and Egypt appears to be of yet later date.
Not only no ancient name is known, but Forskal, a hundred years ago, and
Delile at the beginning of the present century, had not seen the
species, of which Schweinfurth has recently spoken as cultivated. It
must have spread to Zanzibar from Asia, and by degrees across Africa or
in European vessels as far as the west coast. This must have been quite
recently, as Robert Brown (_Bot. of Congo_) and Thonning did not see the
species in Guinea.[968]
+Cashew+—_Anacardium occidentale_, Linnæus.
The most erroneous assertions about the origin of this species were
formerly made,[969] and in spite of what I said on the subject in
1855,[970] I find them occasionally reproduced.
The French name _Pommier d’acajou_ (mahogany apple tree) is as absurd as
it is possible to be. It is a tree belonging to the order of
_Terebintaceæ_ or _Anacardiaceæ_, very different from the Rosaceæ and
the Meliaceæ, to which the apple and the mahogany belong. The edible
part is more like a pear than an apple, and botanically speaking is not
a fruit, but the receptacle or support of the fruit, which resembles a
large bean. The two names, French and English, are both derived from a
name given to it by the natives of Brazil, _acaju_, _acajaiba_, quoted
by early travellers.[971] The species is certainly wild in the forests
of tropical America, and indeed occupies a wide area in that region; it
is found, for example, in Brazil, Guiana, the Isthmus of Panama, and the
West Indies.[972] Dr. Ernst[973] believes it is only indigenous in the
basin of the Amazon River, although he had seen it also in Cuba, Panama,
Ecuador, and New Granada. His opinion is founded upon the absence of all
mention of the plant in Spanish authors of the time of the Conquest—a
negative proof, which establishes a mere probability.
Rheede and Rumphius had also indicated this plant in the south of Asia.
The former says it is common on the Malabar coast.[974] The existence of
the same tropical arborescent species in Asia and America was so little
probable, that it was at first suspected that there was a difference of
species, or at least of variety; but this was not confirmed. Different
historical and philological proofs have convinced me that its origin is
not Asiatic.[975] Moreover, Rumphius, who is always accurate, spoke of
an ancient introduction by the Portuguese into the Malay Archipelago
from America. The Malay name he gives, _cadju_, is American; that used
at Amboyna means Portugal fruit, that of Macassar was taken from the
resemblance of the fruit to that of the _jambosa_. Rumphius says that
the species was not widely diffused in the islands. Garcia ab Orto did
not find it at Goa in 1550, but Acosta afterwards saw it at Couchin, and
the Portuguese propagated it in India and the Malay Archipelago.
According to Blume and Miquel, the species is only cultivated in Java.
Rheede, it is true, says it is abundant (_provenit ubique_) on the coast
of Malabar, but he only quotes one name which seems to be Indian, _kapa
mava_; all the others are derived from the American name. Piddington
gives no Sanskrit name. Lastly, Anglo-Indian colonists, after some
hesitation as to its origin, now admit the importation of the species
from America at an early period. They add that it has become naturalized
in the forests of British India.[976]
It is yet more doubtful that the tree is indigenous in Africa, indeed it
is easy to disprove the assertion. Loureiro[977] had seen the species on
the east coast of this continent, but he supposed it to have been of
American origin. Thonning had not seen it in Guinea, nor Brown in
Congo.[978] It is true that specimens from the last-named country and
from the islands in the Gulf of Guinea were sent to the herbarium at
Kew, but Oliver says it is cultivated there.[979] A tree which occupies
such a large area in America, and which has become naturalized in
several districts of India within the last two centuries, would exist
over a great extent of tropical Africa if it were indigenous in that
quarter of the globe.
+Mango+—_Mangifera indica_, Linnæus.
Belonging to the same order as the _Cashew_, this tree nevertheless
produces a true fruit, something the colour of the apricot.[980]
It is impossible to doubt that it is a native of the south of Asia or of
the Malay Archipelago, when we see the multitude of varieties cultivated
in these countries, the number of ancient common names, in particular a
Sanskrit name,[981] its abundance in the gardens of Bengal, of the
Dekkan Peninsula, and of Ceylon, even in Rheede’s time. Its cultivation
was less diffused in the direction of China, for Loureiro only mentions
its existence in Cochin-China. According to Rumphius,[982] it had been
introduced into certain islands of the Asiatic Archipelago within the
memory of living men. Forster does not mention it in his work on the
fruits of the Pacific Islands at the time of Cook’s expedition. The name
common in the Philippine Isles, _manga_,[983] shows a foreign origin,
for it is the Malay and Spanish name. The common name in Ceylon is
_ambe_, akin to the Sanskrit _amra_, whence the Persian and Arab
_amb_,[984] the modern Indian names, and perhaps the Malay, _mangka_,
_manga_, _manpelaan_, indicated by Rumphius. There are, however, other
names used in the Sunda Islands, in the Moluccas, and in Cochin-China.
The variety of these names argues an ancient introduction into the East
Indian Archipelago, in spite of the opinion of Rumphius.
The _Mangifera_ which this author had seen wild in Java, and _Mangifera
sylvatiea_ which Roxburgh had discovered at Silhet, are other species;
but the true mango is indicated by modern authors as wild in the forests
of Ceylon, the regions at the base of the Himalayas, especially towards
the east, in Arracan, Pegu, and the Andaman Isles.[985] Miquel does not
mention it as wild in any of the islands of the Malay Archipelago. In
spite of its growing in Ceylon, and the indications, less positive
certainly, of Sir Joseph Hooker in the _Flora of British India_, the
species is probably rare or only naturalized in the Indian Peninsula.
The size of the stone is too great to allow of its being transported by
birds, but the frequency of its cultivation causes a dispersion by man’s
agency. If the mango is only naturalized in the west of British India,
this must have occurred at a remote epoch, as the existence of a
Sanskrit name shows. On the other hand, the peoples of Western Asia must
have known it late, since they did not transport the species into Egypt
or elsewhere towards the west.
It is cultivated at the present day in tropical Africa, and even in
Mauritius and the Seychelles, where it has become to some extent
naturalized in the woods.[986]
In the new world it was first introduced into Brazil, for the seeds were
brought thence to Barbados in the middle of the last century.[987] A
French vessel was carrying some young trees from Bourbon to Saint
Domingo in 1782, when it was taken by the English, who took them to
Jamaica, where they succeeded wonderfully. When the coffee plantations
were abandoned, at the time of the emancipation of the slaves, the
mango, whose stones the negroes scattered everywhere, formed forests in
every part of the islands, and these are now valued both for their shade
and as a form of food.[988] It was not cultivated in Cayenne in the time
of Aublet, at the end of the eighteenth century, but now there are
mangoes of the finest kind in this colony. They are grafted, and it is
observed that their stones produce better fruit than that of the
original stock.[989]
+Tahiti Apple+—_Spondias dulcis_, Forster.
This tree belongs to the family of the _Anacardiaceæ_, and is indigenous
in the Society, Friendly, and Fiji Islands.[990] The natives consumed
quantities of the fruit at the time of Cook’s voyage. It is like a large
plum, of the colour of an apple, and contains a stone covered with long
hooked bristles.[991] The flavour, according to travellers, is
excellent. It is not among the fruits most widely diffused in tropical
colonies. It is, however, cultivated in Mauritius and Bourbon, under the
primitive Polynesian name _evi_ or _hevi_,[992] and in the West Indies.
It was introduced into Jamaica in 1782, and thence into Saint Domingo.
Its absence in many of the hot countries of Asia and Africa is probably
owing to the fact that the species was discovered, only a century ago,
in small islands which have no communications with other countries.
+Strawberry+—_Fragaria vesca_, Linnæus.
Our common strawberry is one of the most widely diffused plants, partly
owing to the small size of its seeds, which birds, attracted by the
fleshy part on which they are found, carry to great distances.
It grows wild in Europe, from Lapland and the Shetland Isles[993] to the
mountain ranges in the south; in Madeira, Spain, Sicily, and in
Greece.[994] It is also found in Asia, from Armenia and the north of
Syria[995] to Dahuria. The strawberries of the Himalayas and of
Japan,[996] which several authors have attributed to this species, do
not perhaps belong to it,[997] and this makes me doubt the assertion of
a missionary[998] that it is found in China. It is wild in Iceland,[999]
in the north-east of the United States,[1000] round Fort Cumberland, and
on the north-west coast,[1001] perhaps even in the Sierra-Nevada of
California.[1002] Thus its area extends round the north pole, except in
Eastern Siberia and the basin of the river Amur, since the species is
not mentioned by Maximowicz in his _Primitiæ Floræ Amurensis_. In
America its area is extended along the highlands of Mexico; for
_Fragaria mexicana_, cultivated in the _Jardin des Plantes_, and
examined by Gay, is _F. vesca_. It also grows round Quito, according to
the same botanist, who is an authority on this question.[1003]
The Greeks and Romans did not cultivate the strawberry. Its cultivation
was probably introduced in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. Champier,
in the sixteenth century, speaks of it as a novelty in the north of
France,[1004] but it already existed in the south, and in England.[1005]
Transported into gardens in the colonies, the strawberry has become
naturalized in a few cool localities far from dwellings. This is the
case in Jamaica,[1006] in Mauritius,[1007] and in Bourbon, where some
plants had been placed by Commerson on the table-land known as the
Kaffirs’ Plain. Bory Saint-Vincent relates that in 1801 he found
districts quite red with strawberries, and that it was impossible to
cross them without staining the feet red with the juice, mixed with
volcanic dust.[1008] It is probable that similar cases of naturalization
may be seen in Tasmania and New Zealand.
The genus Fragaria has been studied with more care than many others, by
Duchesne (_fils_), the Comte de Lambertye, Jacques Gay, and especially
by Madame Eliza Vilmorin, whose faculty of observation was worthy of the
name she bore. A summary of their works, with excellent coloured plates,
is published in the _Jardin Fruitier du Muséum_ by Decaisne. These
authors have overcome great difficulties in distinguishing the varieties
and hybrids which are multiplied in gardens from the true species, and
in defining these by well-marked characters. Some strawberries whose
fruit is poor have been abandoned, and the finest are the result of the
crossing of the species of Virginia and Chili, of which I am about to
speak.
+Virginian Strawberry+—_Fragaria virginiana_, Ehrarht.
The scarlet strawberry of French gardens. This species, indigenous in
Canada and in the eastern States of America, and of which one variety
extends west as far as the Rocky Mountains, perhaps even to
Oregon,[1009] was introduced into English gardens in 1629.[1010] It was
much cultivated in France in the last century, but its hybrids with
other species are now more esteemed.
+Chili Strawberry+—_Fragaria Chiloensis_, Duchesne.
A species common in Southern Chili, at Conception, Valdivia, and
Chiloe,[1011] and often cultivated in that country. It was brought to
France by Frezier in the year 1715. Cultivated in the Museum of Natural
History in France, it spread to England and elsewhere. The large size of
the berry and its excellent flavour have produced by different
crossings, especially with _F. virginiana_, the highly prized varieties
_Ananas_, _Victoria_, _Trollope_, _Rubis_, etc.
+Bird-Cherry+—_Prunus avium_, Linnæus; _Süsskirschbaum_ in German.
I use the word cherry because it is customary, and has no inconvenience
when speaking of cultivated species or varieties, but the study of
allied wild species confirms the opinion of Linnæus, that the cherries
do not form a separate genus from the plums.
All the varieties of the cultivated cherry belong to two species, which
are found wild: 1. _Prunus avium_, Linnæus, tall, with no suckers from
the roots, leaves downy on the under side, the fruit sweet; 2. _Prunus
cerasus_, Linnæus, shorter, with suckers from the roots, leaves
glabrous, and fruit more or less sour or bitter.
The first of these species, from which the white and black cherries are
developed, is wild in Asia; in the forest of Ghilan (north of Persia),
in the Russian provinces to the south of the Caucasus and in
Armenia;[1012] in Europe in the south of Russia proper, and generally
from the south of Sweden to the mountainous parts of Greece, Italy, and
Spain.[1013] It even exists in Algeria.[1014]
As we leave the district to the south of the Caspian and Black Seas, the
bird-cherry becomes less common, less natural, and determined more
perhaps by the birds which seek its fruit and carry the seeds from place
to place.[1015] It cannot be doubted that it was thus naturalized, from
cultivation, in the north of India,[1016] in many of the plains of the
south of Europe, in Madeira,[1017] and here and there in the United
States;[1018] but it is probable that in the greater part of Europe this
took place in prehistoric times, seeing that the agency of birds was
employed before the first migrations of nations, perhaps before there
were men in Europe. Its area must have extended in this region as the
glaciers diminished.
The common names in ancient languages have been the subject of a learned
article by Adolphe Pictet,[1019] but nothing relative to the origin of
the species can be deduced from them; and besides, the different species
and varieties have often been confused in popular nomenclature. It is
far more important to know whether archæology can tell us anything about
the presence of the bird-cherry in Europe in prehistoric times.
Heer gives an illustration of the stones of _Prunus avium_, in his paper
on the lake-dwellings of Western Switzerland.[1020] From what he was
kind enough to write to me, April 14, 1881, these stones were found in
the peat formed above the ancient deposits of the age of stone. De
Mortillet[1021] found similar cherry-stones in the lake-dwellings of
Bourget belonging to an epoch not very remote, more recent than the
stone age. Dr. Gross sent me some from the locality, also comparatively
recent, of Corcelette on Lake Neuchâtel, and Strobel and Pigorini
discovered some in the “terra-mare” of Parma.[1022] All these are
settlements posterior to the stone age, and perhaps belonging to
historic time. If no more ancient stones of this species are found in
Europe, it will seem probable that naturalization took place after the
Aryan migrations.
+Sour Cherry+—_Prunus cerasus_, Linnæus; _Cerasus vulgaris_, Miller;
_Baumweichsel_, _Sauerkirschen_, in German.
The _Montmorency_ and _griotte_ cherries, and several other kinds known
to horticulturists, are derived from this species.[1023]
Hohenacker[1024] saw _Prunus cerasus_ at Lenkoran, near the Caspian Sea,
and Koch[1025] in the forests of Asia Minor, that is to say, in the
north-east of that country, as that was the region in which he
travelled. Ancient authors found it at Elisabethpol and Erivan,
according to Ledebour.[1026] Grisebach[1027] indicates it on Mount
Olympus of Bithynia, and adds that it is nearly wild on the plains of
Macedonia. The true and really ancient habitation seems to extend from
the Caspian Sea to the environs of Constantinople; but in this very
region _Prunus avium_ is more common. Indeed, Boissier and Tchihatcheff
do not appear to have seen _P. cerasus_ even in the Pontus, though they
received or brought back several specimens of _P. avium_.[1028]
In the north of India, _P. cerasus_ exists only as a cultivated
plant.[1029] The Chinese do not appear to have been acquainted with our
two kinds of cherry. Hence it may be assumed that it was not very early
introduced into India, and the absence of a Sanskrit name confirms this.
We have seen that, according to Grisebach, _P. cerasus_ is nearly wild
in Macedonia. It was said to be wild in the Crimea, but Steven[1030]
only saw it cultivated; and Rehmann[1031] gives only the allied species,
_P. chamæcerasus_, Jacquin, as wild in the south of Russia. I very much
doubt its wild character in any locality north of the Caucasus. Even in
Greece, where Fraas said he saw this tree wild, Heldreich only knows it
as a cultivated species.[1032] In Dalmatia,[1033] a particular variety
or allied species, _P. Marasca_, is found really wild; it is used in
making Maraschino wine. _P. cerasus_ is wild in mountainous parts of
Italy[1034] and in the centre of France,[1035] but farther to the west
and north, and in Spain, the species is only found cultivated, and
naturalized here and there as a bush. _P. cerasus_, more than the
bird-cherry, evidently presents itself in Europe, as a foreign tree not
completely naturalized.
None of the often-quoted passages[1036] in Theophrastus, Pliny, and
other ancient authors appear to apply to _P. cerasus_.[1037] The most
important, that of Theophrastus, belongs to _Prunus avium_, because of
the height of the tree, a character which distinguishes it from _P.
cerasus_. _Kerasos_ being the name for the bird-cherry in Theophrastus,
as now _kerasaia_ among the modern Greeks, I notice a linguistic proof
of the antiquity of _P. cerasus_. The Albanians, descendants of the
Pelasgians, call the latter _vyssine_, an ancient name which reappears
in the German _Wechsel_, and the Italian _visciolo_.[1038] As the
Albanians have also the name _kerasie_ for _P. avium_, it is probable
that their ancestors very clearly distinguished the two species by
different names, perhaps before the arrival of the Hellenes in Greece.
Another indication of antiquity may be seen in Virgil (_Geor._ ii. 17)—
“Pullulat ab radice aliis densissima silva
Ut cerasis ulmisque”—
which applies to _P. cerasus_, not to _P. avium_.
Two paintings of the cherry tree were found at Pompeii, but it seems
that it cannot be discovered to which of the two species they should be
attributed.[1039] Comes calls them _Prunus cerasus_.
Any archæological discovery would be more convincing. The stones of the
two species present a difference in the furrow or groove, which has not
escaped the observation of Heer and Sordelli. Unfortunately, only one
stone of _P. cerasus_ has been found in the prehistoric settlements of
Italy and Switzerland, and what is more, it is not quite certain from
what stratum it was taken. It appears that it was a non-archæological
stratum.[1040]
From all these data, somewhat contradictory and sufficiently vague, I am
inclined to admit that _Prunus cerasus_ was known and already becoming
naturalized at the beginning of Greek civilization, and a little later
in Italy before the epoch when Lucullus brought a cherry tree from Asia
Minor. Pages might be transcribed from authors, even modern ones, who
attribute, after Pliny, the introduction of the cherry into Italy to
this rich Roman, in the year 65 B.C. Since this error is perpetuated by
its incessant repetition in classical schools, it must once more be said
that cherry trees (at least the bird-cherry) existed in Italy before
Lucullus, and that the famous _gourmet_ did not need to go far to seek
the species with sour or bitter fruit. I have no doubt that he pleased
the Romans with a good variety cultivated in the Pontus, and that
cultivators hastened to propagate it by grafting, but Lucullus’ share in
the matter was confined to this.
From what is now known of Kerasunt and the ancient names of the cherry
tree, I venture to maintain, contrary to the received opinion, that it
was a variety of the bird-cherry of which the fleshy fruit is of a sweet
flavour. I am inclined to think so because _Kerasos_ in Theophrastus is
the name of _Prunus avium_, which is far the commoner of the two in Asia
Minor. The town of Kerasunt took its name from the tree, and it is
probable that the abundance of _Prunus avium_ in the neighbouring woods
had induced the inhabitants to seek the trees which yielded the best
fruits in order to plant them in their gardens. Certainly, if Lucullus
brought fine white-heart cherries to Rome, his countrymen who only knew
the little wild cherry may well have said, “It is a fruit which we have
not.” Pliny affirms nothing more.
I must not conclude without suggesting a hypothesis about the two kinds
of cherry. They differ but little in character, and, what is very rare,
their two ancient habitations, which are most clearly proved, are
similar (from the Caspian Sea to Western Anatolia). The two species have
spread towards the West, but unequally. That which is commonest in its
original home and the stronger of the two (_P. avium_) has extended
further and at an earlier epoch, and has become better naturalized _P.
cerasus_ is, therefore, perhaps derived from the other in prehistoric
times. I come thus, by a different road, to an idea suggested by
Caruel;[1041] only, instead of saying that it would perhaps be better to
unite them now in one species, I consider them actually distinct, and
content myself with supposing a descent, which for the rest it would not
be easy to prove.
+Cultivated Plums.+
Pliny[1042] speaks of the immense quantity of plums known in his time:
_ingens turba prunorum_. Horticulturists now number more than three
hundred. Some botanists have tried to attribute these to distinct wild
species, but they have not always agreed, and judging from the specific
names especially they seem to have had very different ideas. This
diversity is on two heads; first as to the descent of a given cultivated
variety, and secondly as to the distinction of the wild forms into
species or varieties.
I do not pretend to classify the innumerable cultivated forms, and I
think that labour useless when dealing with the question of geographical
origin, for the differences lie principally in the shape, size, colour,
and taste of the fruit, in characters, that is to say, which it has been
the interest of horticulturists to cultivate when they occur, and even
to create as far as it was in their power to do so. It is better to
insist upon the distinction of the forms observed in a wild state,
especially upon those from which man derives no advantage, and which
have probably remained as they were before the existence of gardens.
It is probably only for about thirty years that botanists have given
really comparative characters for the three species or varieties which
exist in nature.[1043] They may be summed up as follows:—
_Prunus domestica_, Linnæus. Tree or tall shrub, without thorns; young
branches glabrous; flowers appearing with the leaves, their peduncles
usually downy; fruit pendulous, ovoid and of a sweet flavour.
_Prunus insititia_, Linnæus. Tree or tall shrub, without thorns; young
shoots covered with a velvet down; flowers appearing with the leaves,
with peduncles covered with a fine down, or glabrous; fruit pendulous,
round or slightly elliptical, of a sweet flavour.
_Prunus spinosa,_ Linnæus. A thorny shrub, with branches spreading out
at right angles; young shoots downy; flowers appearing before the
leaves; pedicles glabrous; fruit upright, round, and very sour.
This third form, so common in our hedges (sloe or blackthorn), is very
different from the other two. Therefore, unless we interpret by
hypothesis what may have happened before all observation, it seems to me
impossible to consider the three forms as constituting one and the same
species, unless we can show transitions from one to the other in those
organs which have not been modified by cultivation, and hitherto this
has not been done. At most the fusion of the two first categories can be
admitted. The two forms with naturally sweet fruit occur in few
countries. These must have tempted cultivators more than _Prunus
spinosa_, whose fruit is so sour. It is, therefore, in these that we
must seek to find the originals of cultivated plums. For greater
clearness I shall speak of them as two species.[1044]
+Common Plum+—_Prunus domestica_, Linnæus; _Zwetchen_ in German.
Several botanists[1045] have found this variety wild throughout
Anatolia, the region to the south of the Caucasus and Northern Persia,
in the neighbourhood of Mount Elbruz, for example.
I know of no proof for the localities of Kashmir, the country of the
Kirghis and of China, which are mentioned in some floras. The species is
often doubtful, and it is probably rather _Prunus insititia_; in other
cases it is its true and ancient wild character which is uncertain, for
the stones have evidently been dispersed from cultivation. Its area does
not appear to extend as far as Lebanon, although the plums cultivated at
Damascus (damascenes, or damsons) have a reputation which dates from the
days of Pliny. It is supposed that this was the species referred to by
Dioscorides[1046] under the name of _Syrian coccumelea_, growing at
Damascus. Karl Koch relates that the merchants trading on the borders of
China told him that the species was common in the forests of the western
part of the empire. It is true that the Chinese have cultivated
different kinds of plums from time immemorial, but we do not know them
well enough to judge of them, and we cannot be sure that they are
indigenous. As none of our kinds of plum has been found wild in Japan or
in the basin of the river Amur, it is very probable that the species
seen in China are different to ours. This appears also to be the result
of Bretschneider’s statements.[1047]
It is very doubtful if _Prunus domestica_ is indigenous in Europe. In
the south, where it is given, it grows chiefly in hedges, near
dwellings, with all the appearance of a tree scarcely naturalized, and
maintained here and there by the constant bringing of stones from
plantations. Authors who have seen the species in the East do not
hesitate to say that it is “subspontaneous.” Fraas[1048] affirms that it
is not wild in Greece, and this is confirmed as far as Attica is
concerned by Heldreich.[1049] Steven[1050] says the same for the Crimea.
If this is the case near Asia Minor, it must be the more readily
admitted for the rest of Europe.
In spite of the abundance of plums cultivated formerly by the Romans, no
kind is found represented in the frescoes at Pompeii.[1051] Neither has
_Prunus domestica_ been found among the remains of the lake-dwellings of
Italy, Switzerland, and Savoy, where, however, stones of _Prunus
insititia_ and _spinosa_ have been discovered. From these facts, and the
small number of words attributable to this species in Greek authors, it
may be inferred that its half-wild or half-naturalized state dates in
Europe from two thousand years at most.
Prunes and damsons are ranked with this species.
+Bullace+—_Prunus insititia_, Linnæus;[1052] _Pflauenbaum_ and
_Haferschlehen_ in German.
This kind of plum grows wild in the south of Europe.[1053] It has also
been found in Cilicia, Armenia, to the south of the Caucasus, and in the
province of Talysch near the Caspian Sea.[1054] It is especially in
Turkey in Europe and to the south of the Caucasus that it appears to be
truly wild. In Italy and in Spain it is perhaps less so, although
trustworthy authors who have seen the plant growing have no doubt about
it. In the localities named north of the Alps, even as far as Denmark,
it is probably naturalized from cultivation. The species is commonly
found in hedges not far from dwellings, and apparently not truly wild.
All this agrees with archæological and historical data. The ancient
Greeks distinguished the _Coccumelea_ of their country from those of
Syria,[1055] whence it is inferred that the former were _Prunus
insititia_. This seems the more likely that the modern Greeks call it
_coromeleia_.[1056] The Albanians say _corombile_,[1057] which has led
some people to suppose an ancient Pelasgian origin. For the rest, we
must not insist upon the common names of the plum which each nation may
have given to one or another species, perhaps also to some cultivated
variety, without any rule. The names which have been much commented upon
in learned works generally, appear to me to apply to any plum or plum
tree without having any very defined meaning.
No stones of _P. insititia_ have yet been found in the _terra-mare_ of
Italy, but Heer has described and given illustrations of some which were
found in the lake-dwellings of Robenhausen.[1058] The species does not
seem to be now indigenous in this part of Switzerland, but we must not
forget that, as we saw in the history of flax, the lake-dwellers of the
canton of Zürich, in the age of stone, had communications with Italy.
These ancient Swiss were not hard to please in the matter of food, for
they also gathered the berries of the blackthorn, which are, as we
think, uneatable. It is probable that they ate them cooked.
+Apricot+—_Prunus armeniaca_, Linnæus; _Armenica vulgaris_, Lamarck.
The Greeks and Romans received the apricot about the beginning of the
Christian era. Unknown in the time of Theophrastus, Dioscorides[1059]
mentions it under the name of _mailon armeniacon_. He says that the
Latins called it _praikokion_. It is, in fact, one of the fruits
mentioned briefly by Pliny,[1060] under the name of _præcocium_, so
called from the precocity of the species.[1061] Its Armenian origin is
indicated by the Greek name, but this name might mean only that the
species was cultivated in Armenia. Modern botanists have long had good
reason to believe that the species is wild in that country. Pallas,
Guldenstadt, and Hohenacker say they found it in the neighbourhood of
the Caucasus Mountains, on the north, on the banks of the Terek, and to
the south between the Caspian and Black Seas.[1062] Boissier[1063]
admits all these localities, but without saying anything about the wild
character of the species. He saw a specimen gathered by Hohenacker, near
Elisabethpol. On the other hand, Tchihatcheff[1064] who has crossed
Anatolia and Armenia several times, does not seem to have seen the wild
apricot; and what is still more significant, Karl Koch, who travelled
through the region to the south of the Caucasus, in order to observe
facts of this nature, expresses himself as follows:[1065] “Native
country unknown. At least, during my long sojourn in Armenia, I nowhere
found the apricot wild, and I have rarely seen it even cultivated.”