The peach seems to be quite as much at home, as highly prized and as commonly grown in Russian Turkestan, northern Persia, Trans-Caucasia and Asia Minor--the countries of western Asia--as in the eastern part of the continent. The Chinese early discovered trade routes over the mountains from the center of Asia to Kashmir, Bokhara and northern Persia. What more probable than that in remote times the seeds of peaches should have been carried westward from China and the peach thus have been introduced into western Asia where it at once found a congenial soil and climate. The peach-tree is so easily raised from the pit that its diffusion along routes of travel must have been very rapid. Of many accounts of the peaches of this region, long and short, perhaps the following from Mr. Albert Regel gives, in the space to be spared, the best idea of the extent of the peach-region in western Asia and the races represented--races rather than varieties, for of the latter there must be legions since we are told the trees are grown from seed. Regel,[74] a physician by vocation, lived in Turkestan for nine years and collected fruits and flowers as an avocation. He seems to have penetrated every nook and corner of Turkestan and adjacent regions. Of peaches and nectarines he says: "Next to the pomegranate, the Asiatics prize the peach, and the Oriental poetry compares its lusciousness to the fruits of Paradise. The culture of the peach reaches its northern limit in the district of the Ili. The young plants, which, as throughout Asia, are grown from the seed, without grafting, suffer greatly there from frost and require careful covering; nevertheless the large, smooth, red and the rough, hairy, yellow fruit of the Chinese varieties develop excellent characteristics. According to the observations of the naturalist Wilkins, there are 40 varieties in the Kokan district, among them some Chinese ones. In the South the peach extends to Afghanistan and Tshotral; its proper home, however, is Northern Persia to the Caucasus. In Darvas the peach forms trees 30 feet high with broad tops. The rough-skinned giant peaches of the garden of Kalaichumb are of unsurpassed lusciousness and aroma, and most inviting bloom (tinting of the cheeks). They attain the size of an average apple. The fruitfulness of this variety is so great that the leaves seem to be concealed by the peaches. The Bokhariots prize the smaller rough skinned, and red cheeked variety at Tchaspak, which is distinguished by strong aroma and firm, almost astringent flesh. The yellow peaches are especially sweet. The number of rough-skinned kinds at Kalaichumb is considerable.