CHAPTER V.

STONE FRUITS.- PEACH; NECTARINE; ALMOND; APRICOT; PLUM; CHERRY; OLIVE.

a. Peach. b. Nectarine. c. Apricot. d. Almond.

THE principal stone fruits, that are valued chiefly as fruits, without any reference to their other qualities, are the peach and nectarine, which are only varieties of the same species, the almond, the apricot, the plum, and the cherry. The first belong to the Linnæan genus Amygdalus, and the latter three to that of Prunus.

It seems doubtful whether the almond, however different it is in its fructification, is not the same species with the peach. The identity of the peach and the nectarine has been fully established. Specimens raised from the stone have not only borne fruit, having on one part of the tree the downy coat of the

peach, and on another the smooth coat of the nectarine; but they have exhibited varieties even closer than that, for single fruits have been produced with the coat of the peach on the the nectarine on the other *. apricot and the plum was also gardeners.

one side, and that of The identity of the believed by the elder

THE PEACH AND NECTARINE.

Of the Peach (Amygdalus Persica) there are two distinct varieties, although there be but little difference in the appearance of the trees, and hardly any in that of the blossoms: these are, the peach with a downy coat, and the nectarine with a smooth one. Of what country the peach actually is a native, it is impossible to ascertain. From the distinctive name Persica, bestowed upon it by the Romans, it is very evident, and Pliny expressly states, that they imported the peach from Persia; but whether it was indigenous to Persia, or sent thither from a country still nearer the equator, we have no information. When growing in its natural state, the peach is rather a small tree, with wide spreading branches. The flowers appear before the leaves; they are of a very delicate colour, but of scarcely any scent. The fruit is roundish, with a furrow along one side, and having a very delicate downy cuticle when ripe. Peaches are distinguished into two classes; those which separate easily from the stone or nut, and those which do not. The former are, generally speaking, the best flavoured, though to that there are exceptions. The varieties of the peach are exceedingly numerous, but of late years as many new peaches have probably not been introduced as there have been new varieties of some other fruits. There are

* See Hort. Trans., vol. i.

upwards of two hundred varieties inserted in the Fruit Catalogue of the Horticultural Society. The qualities of the peach appear to depend a good deal upon the soil and climate in which it has for a considerable time been cultivated; and the soil in which the tree is immediately planted should neither be too rich nor too poor, the former causing the trees to make too much wood, and the latter making the fruit hard and deficient in flavour.

Of the history of the nectarine as little is known as of that of the peach; neither is it ascertained which of them was the variety first cultivated. Delicious as the peach is, the nectarine, when of a good sort, and properly cultivated, is superior to it; and though it wants the lusciousness of some of the tropical fruits, perhaps few vegetable productions are more grateful to the palate even of the epicure.

In the warmer parts of Asia the peach is very generally cultivated, and in many it grows abundantly without culture.

On some parts of the American continent also, the peach grows readily and in great plenty, Capt. Head, in his Rough Notes,' mentions the beauty and productiveness of the peach-trees which are scattered over the corn-fields in the neighbourhood of Mendoza, on the east side of the Andes; and the same traveller notices dried peaches as an article of food in the mountainous parts, to which they must, of course, be carried from the plains.

In many parts of the United States, peach-trees grow in extensive plantations. They continue without culture; and the fruit is of little value, except in the distillation of peach brandy, and the fattening of hogs. The following account of the peach-orchards in the United States, and of a variety of peach which the describer obtained from that country, was com

municated to the Horticultural Society in 1815, by Mr. John Braddick, of Thames Ditton :

"Some years ago, when travelling through Maryland, Virginia, and the neighbouring provinces of the United States of America, I had an opportunity of observing the mode in which the peach-trees of those provinces were cultivated, which was invariably from the stone of the peach, the plant being never budded, but always remaining in a state of nature. In the middle and southern provinces of the United States, it is no uncommon circumstance for a planter to possess a sufficient number of peach-trees to produce him, after fermenting and distilling the pulp, from fifty to one hundred gallons of peach-brandy; the manufacturing of this liquor, and the feeding of hogs, being the principal uses to which the peach is applied in those countries. A peach-orchard usually contains a thousand or more standard trees. tree being raised in the manner I have detailed, it is easy to conceive that the fruit growing on them must be an endless variety, scarcely two trees producing exactly alike; and although by far the greater number of trees, in any of these orchards, will always be found to produce fruit below mediocrity in point of flavour, yet a judicious observer will never fail, among so great a number, to pick out a few trees, the race of which may be considered worthy of preserving."

The

The peach is said to have been first cultivated in England about the middle of the sixteenth century. Gerard describes several varieties of peach as growing in his garden. Tusser mentions it among his

list of fruits in 1557.

In the neighbourhood of Paris much attention is paid to the culture of peach-trees; and the peaches there are of excellent quality. The principal gardens for the supply of the French capital are at Montreuil,

a village near Paris; and one tree there sometimes covers sixty feet of wall, from the one extremity to the other. The Montreuil peaches are of the finest flavour; and their excellence is properly attributed to the exclusive attention of the people to their culture. The sub-division of labour and skill produces the same results in every art.

The espalier peaches of the Duc de Praslin, near Melun, are stated to be the finest in Europe *.

All the peaches have in the kernel a flavour resembling that of noyau, which depends on the presence of prussic or hydrocyanic acid. The leaves have the same flavour, which they impart by infusion either in water or in spirits.

The facility of raising the peach from the stone has probably tended to its general diffusion throughout the world. This fruit has steadily followed the progress of civilization; and man, "from China to Peru," has surrounded himself with the luxury of this, and of the other stone fruits, very soon after he has begun to taste the blessings of a settled life. There are still spots where ignorance prevents portions of the human race from enjoying the blessings which Providence has everywhere ordained for industry; and there are others where tyranny forbids the earth to be cultivated and produce its fruits. The inhabitants of the Haouran, who are constantly wandering, to escape the dreadful exactions of some petty tyrant, have neither orchards nor fruit-trees, nor gardens for the growth of vegetables. "Shall we sow for strangers?" was the affecting answer of one of them to Burckhardt.

Even in the same land there is a striking contrast between such scenes as Burckhardt thus describes, and the effects of a settled industry, proceeding from a peaceful security. Dandini, in remarking the rich* Le Bon Jardinier, 1829.