ABSTRACT
The Chinese like nuts as well as other peoples do, yet nut cultivation was not well developed in traditional China, and nuts occupied an insignificant place in Chinese diet (Meyer, 1911: 51; H. L. Li, 1983: 47; E. N. Anderson, 1988: 137). As a result, our list of cultivated nuts is much shorter than that of cultivated fruits, and in general our information on them is scantier. In addition, there are questions as to the degree particular species were actually cultivated, for many of the nuts consumed in traditional China derived not from cultivated trees and shrubs but from ones that were wild or nearly so. As a result, the Western reader may face a higher percentage of unfamiliar species, domesticated and wild, in this section than in others. We have sought to make his way easier by first considering China’s major, and more familiar, nuts and nut-like fruits, and then turning to other edible nuts and seeds, including oil seeds, used by the Chinese. We order the major species providing nuts and nut-like fruits by place of origin, turning first to those domesticated in China.
