Note 26 — Chapter XV · Mythical and Legendary Kings

The overland trade-routes through Iran brought the Chinese into direct touch with Lesser Fu-lin (Syria), and ultimately with Greater Fu-lin (the Byzantine Empire). The vine and other plants with ancient religious associations were imported into China, and the Chinese peach tree reached Europe. With the peach went silk. “It is not impossible,” says Laufer, “that these two gifts were transmitted by the silk-dealers, first to Iran (in the second or first century B.C.), and thence to Armenia, Greece, and Rome (in the first century A.D.).”26