Carrying our researches eastward, we find that Anglo-Indian botanists[1073] are agreed in considering that the apricot, which is generally cultivated in the north of India and in Thibet, is not wild in those regions; but they add that it has a tendency to become naturalized, and that it is found upon the site of ruined villages. Messrs. Schlagintweit brought specimens from the north-west provinces of India, and from Thibet, which Westmael verified,[1074] but he was kind enough to write to me that he cannot affirm that it was wild, since the collector’s label gives no information on that head. Roxburgh,[1075] who did not neglect the question of origin, says, speaking of the apricot, “native of China as well as the west of Asia.” I read in Dr. Bretschneider’s curious little work,[1076] drawn up at Pekin, the following passage, which seems to me to decide the question in favour of a Chinese origin:—“_Sing_, as is well known, is the apricot (_Prunus armeniaca_). The character (a Chinese sign printed on p. 10) does not exist as indicating a fruit, either in the _Shu-king_, or in the _Shi-king_, _Cihouli_, etc., but the _Shan-hai-king_ says that several _sings_ grow upon the hills (here a Chinese character). Besides, the name of the apricot is represented by a particular sign which may show that it is indigenous in China.” The _Shan-hai-king_ is attributed to the Emperor Yü, who lived in 2205-2198 B.C. Decaisne,[1077] who was the first to suspect the Chinese origin of the apricot, has recently received from Dr. Bretschneider some specimens accompanied by the following note:—“No. 24, apricot wild in the mountains of Pekin, where it grows in abundance; the fruit is small (an inch and a quarter in diameter), the skin red and yellow; the flesh salmon colour, sour, but eatable. No. 25, the stone of the apricot cultivated round Pekin. The fruit is twice as large as that of the wild tree.”[1078] Decaisne adds, in the letter he was good enough to write to me, “In shape and surface the stones are exactly like those of our small apricots; they are smooth and not pitted.” The leaves he sent me are certainly those of the apricot.