364 FRUITS : ' Chap. X. 



besides many varieties said to exist in China, Downing describes, 

 in the United States, seyenty-nine native and imported varieties 

 of the peach; and a few years ago Lindley 57 enumerated one 

 hundred and sixty-four varieties of the peach and nectarine grown 

 in England. I have already indicated the chief points of difference 

 between the several varieties. Nectarines, even when produced 

 from distinct kinds of peaches, always possess their own peculiar 

 flavour, and are smooth and small. Clingstone and freestone 

 peaches, which differ in the ripe flesh either firmly adhering to 

 the stone, or easily separating from it, also differ in the character 

 of the stone itself; that of the freestones or melters being more 

 deeply fissured, with the sides of the fissures smoother than 

 in clingstones. In the various kinds the flowers differ not only 

 in size, but in the larger flowers the petals are differently shaped, 

 more imbricated, generally red in the centre and pale towards 

 the margin : whereas in the smaller flowers the margin of the 

 petal are usually more darkly coloured. One variety has nearly 

 white flowers. The leaves are more or less serrated, and are either 

 destitute of glands, or ha^e globose or reniform glands; 58 and some 

 few peaches, such as the Brugnen, bear on the same tree both 

 globular and kidney-shaped glands. 69 According to Eobertson 60 

 the trees with glandular leaves are liable to blister, but not in any 

 great degree to mildew ; whilst the non-glandular trees are more 

 subject to curl, to mildew, and to the attacks of aphides. The 

 varieties differ in the period of their maturity, in the fruit keeping 

 well, and in hardiness, — the latter circumstance being especially 

 attended to in the United States. Certain varieties, such as the 

 Bellegarde, stand forcing in hot-houses better than other varieties. 

 The flat-peach of China is the most remarkable of all the varieties , 

 it is so much depressed towards the summit, that the stone is here 

 covered only by roughened skin and not by a fleshy layer. 61 

 Another Chinese variety, called the Honey-peach, is remarkable 

 from the fruit terminating in a long sharp point; its leaves are 

 glandless and widely dentate. 62 The Emperor of Eussia peach 

 is a third singular variety, having deeply double-serrated leaves ; 

 the fruit is deeply cleft with one-half projecting considerably 

 beyond the other: it originated in America, and its seedlings 

 inherit similiar leaves. 63 



The peach has also produced in China a small class of trees 

 valued for ornament, namely the double-flowered; of these, five 



57 'Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. v. p. 1865, p. 271, to same effect. Also 

 554. See also Carriere, ' Description et ' Journal of Horticulture,' Sept. 26th, 

 Class, des Varietes de Peehers.' 1865, p. 254. 



58 ' Loudon's ' Encyclop. of Garden- 61 'Transact. Hort. Soc' vol. iv. p. 

 ing,' p. 907. 512. 



39 M. Carriere, in'Gard. Chron.,' 62 'Journal of Horticulture,' Sept. 



1865, p. 1154. 8th, 1853, p. 188. 



69 'Transact, Hort. Soc.,' vol. iii. 63 'Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. vL 



p. 332. SeeaXso ' Gardener's Chronicle,' p. 412. 



