108 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



recent view places them all in one genus, primus ; the botanical name for the peach 

 likely to be hereafter accepted is j^runus persica. The belief that the peach origin- 

 ated in Persia is indicated in its early generic and present specific names, and by 

 its having been formerly called malum persicmn. It was apparently brought from 

 that country to Europe, but DeCandolle, who has carefully investigated the mat- 

 ter, regards the trees growing wild in Turkey, Persia, and other parts of western 

 Asia, as indications that the fruit has long been cultivated in those countries, and 

 thinks its probable origin was in China, where it has been cultivated from the 

 earliest times. It is commonly regarded as a short-lived tree, but in a genial soil 

 and climate it attains a good age — there being in Virginia trees that were planted 

 70 years, one on the eastern shore of Maryland known to be 100 years old, and there 

 was one in France supposed to be considerably over 100. 



The peach-stone is not the seed proper, bat a portion of the pericarp or seed 

 vessel ; technically, the fleshy part of the peach is the sarcocarp, and the inner the 

 putamen. In some peaches these two parts when ripe are readily separable, such 

 being called free-stones, while in others the two are firmly held together, and 

 these are known as cling-stones. The stones of the different varieties differ much 

 in their relative length and breadth, and some are terminated by a long, sharp 

 point. The saiune, where the two halves of the stone join, varies in prominence, 

 and their regular pits or furrows with which the surface of the stone is marked are 

 deeper in some varieties than in others. All these characters of the stone are of 

 use to the pomologist in distinguishing varieties. The tree comes into bearing in 

 a very few years from the seed ; some varieties come very true from the seed, but 

 as is usual with fruits which have been long in cultivation, the seedling often pro- 

 duces fruit unlike that of the parent tree. The short time required to test the 

 quality of seedlings leads to a great increase of the number of varieties, and there 

 are all over the country local kinds of qaite as good quality as those admitted into 

 the catalogues and fruit lists. 



In Downing's "Fruits" there are enumerated over 130 varieties. Indeed, 

 new varieties are constantly appearing for which some peculiar excellence is 

 claimed. Some of our standard varieties are of Jiuropean origin, and have been 

 long in cultivation, but the majority have originated in this country. While some 

 will succeed wherever peaches will grow at all, others are only suited to particular 

 localities. 



In a pomological classification peaches are divided into free-stones and cling- 

 stones. These divisions are subdivided into two classes, the white, or light- 

 colored, and the yellosv-fleshed. To the peach grower the time of ripening is of 

 more importance than any other character, and one largely engaged in cultivating 

 will endeavor to have a selection of sorts ripening continuously from the beginning 

 to the end of the season, and this selection will vary according to location. On 

 the southern slope of the Ozarks, the great peach belt of the southwest, all varie- 

 ties seem to flourish, and selections are generally made as to their good quality. 

 The early varieties grown here are Evans' Extra Early, Amsden, Hale's Early 

 and several others ; of the semi-cling family, among the latest are Smock, Won- 

 derful, Ward's Late, Picket's Late and Solway : among the intermediate vari- 

 eties are Troth's Early, Red Rare-ripe, Old Mixoo, Foster, Crawford Family 

 Favority, Montrose, Elberta and Susquehanna. In establishing an orchard, 

 the planter purcha3e8 his trees from a nursery, or as is the custom in large 

 orchards, produces them himself. The stocks are raised from seeds, those being 

 preferred from natural fruit. The seeds must be exposed to the influence of the 

 weather during the winter; spread them in the autumn in a layer three inches 



