Note 93 — Chapter I · HISTORY OF THE PEACH (continued 2)

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."