[93] This early Spanish publication is to be found in the Library of Congress under the title Molina's Vocubalario en Lengua Castellana y Mexicana (1571). Mr. W. E. Safford, economic botanist in the United States Department of Agriculture, has been kind enough to translate Molina's reference to the peach. Mr. Safford writes:—
"On page 83a (the pages of Molina are numbered only on one side, and this is the reverse of page 83) I find as a definition of the fruit of Melocoton (Peach) the following:—xuchipal durazno (red peach), cuztic durazno (yellow peach), xocotl melocoton (plum peach). I translate xocotl "plum", because the Mexicans applied this word to many plum-like fruits, or fruits more or less acid in distinction to tzapotl, the general term applied to sweet soft fruits. The words cited are all hybrid compounds of Nahuatl and Spanish. Whatever may be the value of these citations, they establish the fact that the peach was undoubtedly introduced into Mexico before 1571."
[94] Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, War Department 3:122. 1854.
[95] Bul. Tor. Bot. Club 12:85-86. Aug. 1885.
[96] Hilton, William, A Relation of a Discovery lately made on the Coasts of Florida. 1664, Force Hist. Tracts. IV: No. 2:8.
[97] Bartram, William Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida 343. 1791.
[98] Bartram, William Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida 405. 1791.
[99] Ibid. 421. 1791.
[100] Kalm, Peter Travels into North America 3:127. 1771.
Peter Kalm is so often mentioned in the fruit-books published by this Station that readers are entitled to know something about him. Kalm was a Swede, born in 1715, died in 1779, who was sent by the Swedish government to travel in North America. He landed in 1748 and spent the next three years in travel in the settled parts of the New World devoting himself to the study of the plant and animal life, the natural phenomena, resources and agriculture of the Middle and Northern States and Canada. On his return to Sweden, Kalm published an account of his travels in America which was afterward translated into German and then into English. To him we are indebted for much valuable information in regard to the beginnings of agriculture and horticulture in the middle of the Eighteenth Century in America. Kalm was a student of Linnaeus and the great botanist perpetuated his memory by naming our beautiful mountain laurel, Kalmia.