the really important question no one has discussed.

[Summer]

how do you know what Elayne looks like? Have you met her?

 

Yes, in fact I have.  I met her in the distant future, and she told me everything that happened in books unknown.

[Jemlin]

I think it is possible that during the breaking, which caused a lot of climactic changes and environmental uproars, peaches could have suffered the "bottleneck" effect in evolution. In effect, all but a very small population of peaches survived and that population may have had slightly higher genetic prevelance of slightly higher cyanide or other poisonous features.  Since there was not a greater, and probably more agriculturally controlled, population for this trait to diffuse in, it became stronger and stronger as this small population expanded.

 

OR, it might be possible that during the War of Power, someone was genetically engineering poisonous peaches, and those are the ones that survived the breaking. 

 

 

[Ikran]

 

 

OR, it might be possible that during the War of Power, someone was genetically engineering poisonous peaches, and those are the ones that survived the breaking. 

 

 

 

Aginor anyone?

[Jemlin]

 

 

OR, it might be possible that during the War of Power, someone was genetically engineering poisonous peaches, and those are the ones that survived the breaking. 

 

 

 

Aginor anyone?

 

Aye, possibly, or any agricultural engineer. It really wouldn't take One Power and a Genious to breed poisonous plants, people do it even now in our own times.  Agricultural Engineering (and Domestic animal engineering) has been going on in our history for over 15,000 years (recorded) and estimated to have been going on for longer than that.

[Impressive Bosom]

AAAAAAARRRGH!!!

 

I can't believe how much discussion has gone into this. Peaches are poisonous there and then just as they are here and now - peach pits to be specific. Its the kind of thing Nynaeve (as an herbalist) would know and the kind of saying a Wisdom would be prone to, likely having picked it up from their predecessor/mentor.

 

I have always considered that little saying to be very nuanced, as if it suggested an obvious truth, but only obvious to those who properly understand the subject matter, or a truth only evident if you looked a little deeper rather than merely taking for granted what everyone else thought.

 

I have not read anything at all (to my recollection) that would suggest a person biting into a Peach in Randland would sicken or die. Please, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Yizun]

Peaches ruling the world? Fah! Dont you know that an orange already HAS ruled the world?

[Dagon Thyne]

All peaches have poison.  The pit has arsenic in it and it can be used for poison.  The flesh itself has some small traces of the poison, but not enough to effect a person unless high numbers of peaches are consumed in a small amount of time.

[MikeRiley]

 

 

OR, it might be possible that during the War of Power, someone was genetically engineering poisonous peaches, and those are the ones that survived the breaking. 

 

 

 

Aginor anyone?

 

Aginor was a James Bond villain? Or maybe a Scooby Doo villain would fit better.

[Tel Janin]

AAAAAAARRRGH!!!

 

I have not read anything at all (to my recollection) that would suggest a person biting into a Peach in Randland would sicken or die. Please, please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Here's what Luckers said on the subject about 18 months ago (or so):

 

I'm on about my twenty-fifth re-read, and I still notice interesting facts--like for instance that peaches are poisonous--when and how did that happen?

Well, peach pits (the stones) are posionous ... maybe it's just a continuation of the same.

 

http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/fruit/peach.html

7. Q: Are peach pits poisonous?

 

A: All parts of the peach except the fruit pulp and skin are toxic. These parts contain cyanide-producing substances. Symptoms - difficulty in breathing, coma; may be fatal.

 

Yes, but its directly stated that peaches are completely poisounous--and to a degree beyond what is true in our time. This is suggested by Moiraine and Nynaeve, and backed up by Demandred

 

Here...

 

But if either said the wrong thing here, word that Moiraine Damodred was wandering about in disguise would spread with the sisters in the room, and it would reach the wrong ears as surely as peaches were poison.

 

So direct--as surely as peaches were poison, as if that goes without saying.

 

"Those brown stains on the blade are gray fennel mixed with powdered peach pit," Nynaeve said, sitting down on the edge of the bed, and grimaced in disgust. "One look at his eyes and tongue, and I knew that was what killed the fellow, not the knife."

 

"Well," Elayne said quietly after a moment. Well, indeed. "Forkroot so I couldn't channel, or stand up, for that matter, and two men to hold me on my feet while the third put a poisoned dagger in me. A complicated plan."

 

"Wetlanders like complicated plans," Aviendha said. Glancing at Birgitte uneasily, she shifted against

the wall and added, "Some do."

 

"Simple, in its way," Birgitte said, rewrapping the knife with as great a care as she had shown unwrapping. "You were easy to reach. Everyone knows you eat your midday meal alone." Her long braid swung as she shook her head. "A lucky thing the first man to reach you didn't have this; one stab, and you'd be dead. A lucky thing Mellar happened to be walking by and heard a man cursing in your rooms. Enough luck for a ta'veren."

 

Nynaeve snorted. "You might be dead from a deep enough cut on your arm. The pit is the most

poisonous part of a peach. Dyelin wouldn't have had a chance if the other blades had been poisoned as well."

 

Again, Nynaeve implies that significant poisonous nature of peaches--'one look and I knew'. 'a gash and you'd be dead'.

 

Most telling, i think, is Demandred's comment.

 

The little woman drew herself up. By face and form she was a luscious plum, ready for plucking, but her big blue eyes were glacial. A peach, perhaps. Peaches were poisonous, here and now.

 

You see what I mean? It's incredibly subtle, but its made clear that peaches are by far more poisonous than they are in our time.

 

I'm still firm in my belief that RJ, as a Citadel alum, made the peach poisonous to take a shot at Georgia.  It's a football thing...

 

My two coppers...  ;D