Bunge[1115] only found cultivated trees in the north of China. This country has hardly been explored, and Chinese legends seem sometimes to indicate wild peaches. Thus the _Chou-y-ki_, according to the author previously quoted, says, ‘Whosoever eats of the peaches of Mount Kouoliou shall obtain eternal life.’ For Japan, Thunberg[1116] says, _Crescit ubique vulgaris, præcipue juxta Nagasaki. In omni horto colitur ob elegantiam florum._ It seems from this passage that the species grows both in and out of gardens, but perhaps in the first case he only alludes to peaches growing in the open air and without shelter. “I have said nothing hitherto of the distinction to be established between the different varieties or species of the peach, since most of them are cultivated in all countries—at least the clearly defined kinds, which may be considered as botanical species. Thus the great distinction between the downy and smooth-skinned fruits (peaches proper and nectarines), on which it is proposed to found two species (_Persica vulgaris_, Mill, and _P. levis_, D. C.), exists in Japan[1117] and in Europe, as in most of the intermediate countries.[1118] Less importance is attached to distinctions founded on the adherence or non-adherence of the skin, on the white, yellow, or red colour of the flesh, and on the general form of the fruit. The great division into peaches and nectarines presents most of these modifications in Europe, in Western Asia, and probably in China. It is certain that in the latter country the form of the fruit varies more than elsewhere; for there are as in Europe oval peaches, and also the peaches of which I spoke just now, which are quite flattened, in which the top of the stone is not even covered with flesh.[1119] The colour also varies greatly.[1120] In Europe the most distinct varieties, nectarines and peaches, freestones and clingstones, existed three centuries ago, for J. Bauhin enumerates them very clearly;[1121] and before him Dalechamp, in 1587, also gave the principal ones.[1122] At that time nectarines were called _Nucipersica_, because of their resemblance in shape, size, and colour to the walnut. It is in the same sense that the Italians call them _pescanoce_.