PEACH-TREE. 239 



reader is referred to our article on the domestic cultivated plum, under the head 

 of " Insects." 



The seventeen-year locust," {Cicada septendecim,) although most usually found 

 on the oak, often resorts to other forest trees, when actuated by necessity, and 

 not unfrequently deposits her eggs on the branches of the peach-tree, when no 

 other convenient shrub or tree is at hand. Peach-trees once attacked by this 

 most pernicious insect, seldom, if ever, recover from the inflicted wounds. 



Among the diseases incident to plants, there is no one involved in more mys- 

 tery than that strange disorder in the peach-tree, commonly called the " yellows." 

 It was noticed in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, by Judge Peters, in 1790, 

 or the year following. From perfect verdure, he states, the leaves of his trees 

 turned yellow in a few days, and their bodies blackened in spots. He attributed 

 the origin of the disease to some morbid aflection of the air, which he conceived 

 has the most to do with all vegetation, as well in its food and sustenance, as 

 in its decay and dissolution. From Philadelphia, the malady spread, by degrees, 

 to other parts of the country; and by IS 10, in New Jersey, there were left but a 

 few peach orchards alive, or in a flourishing state. It is said to have appeared 

 in the vicinity of New York, in about the year 1801 ; in Connecticut, in 1815 ; 

 and in Massachusetts, in 1824. It is also prevalent in the southern states of the 

 union, and west of the Alleghany Mountains. 



The phenomena attending the development of this disease, are given in detail, 

 in the second number of the "Albany Cultivator," of 1845, by Mr. Noyes Dar- 

 ling, of New Haven, from which we make the following condensed extracts: 

 " There are two marks or symptoms, by which the presence of the disease is 

 indicated. One is, the shooting out from the body or limbs of the tree, of very 

 small, slender shoots, abiout the size of a hen's quill. The leaves upon these 

 shoots are commonly destitute of green colour, as if blanched, or as if grown in 

 a dark cellar; and like the shoots which bear them, are of diminutive growth, 

 rarely exceeding an inch in length. These shoots do not usually start from the 

 common, visible buds at the points where the leaves join the stem, but from 

 unseen, latent buds in the bark of the trunk or large branches. The other symp- 

 tom is, the ripening of the fruit two to four weeks before its natural season of 

 maturity. Most generally also, the fruit, whatever be its natural colour, is more 

 or less spotted with purplish-red specks. If shoots, such as are above described, 

 appear upon a tree, or without them, if the fruit upon any part of it (not wormy) 

 ripens before the proper time, it may be certainly known that the tree has the 

 yellows. These are not the only marks or symptoms of the disease ; but they 

 are those which are the most readily discovered. The ordinary leaves of the 

 \ree, or at least those upon the diseased portion of it, commonly undergo a slight 

 change of coloiu-. Instead of a bright glossy green, they take on a dull yellowish 

 tinge. The wood also, when the disease is considerably advanced, becomes 

 unclastic, so that its branches, when moved by the wind, instead of the graceful 

 waving of health, have a stiff jerking motion. * -^ * ^ * The fruit, the first 

 season of attack, usually grows to its proper size. The second season, it is uni- 

 formly small, not more than a half or a quarter of its usual size. Whatever be 

 the natural colour of the fruit, red, yellow, white, or green, it is more or less, 

 when diseased, coloured with purplish-red; generally in specks, or coarse dots. 

 The flesh, quite to the stone, is often coloured, and most deeply around the stone. 

 By the coloured specks, a person may easily distinguish by the eye, diseased, 

 from healthy fruit. ***** In the first summer of disease, it is not always 

 that the whole tree appears affected. The slender shoots may show themselves 

 on one branch only, the rest of the tree having every appearance of health. In 

 like manner, the fruit upon one branch may ripen four weeks too soon, upon 

 another two weeks too soon, and upon the rest of the tree at the natural time. 



