THE DRUPE-FRUITS 127 



as an escape that three centuries later botanists thought the 

 peach to be a native of America. In the fruit areas of North 

 America, after two centuries of orchard cultivation, the peach 

 is so plentiful that it is found fresh, canned or evaporated in 

 nearly every home on the continent. In the author's The 

 Peaches of New York, 2181 varieties of peaches are described, 

 of which the larger number have originated on this side of the 

 Atlantic, these numbers testifying to the popularity of the 

 peach in North America. 



183. Variability of the peach. — The peach is an exceedingly 

 variable fruit, which implies that it is capable of being molded 

 to fit many conditions of soil, climate, and cultivation ; and that 

 it may still be greatly improved by the plant-breeder. Yet, 

 paradoxically though it may appear, many of the forms breed 

 true to type : thus, the several races and two or three thousand 

 varieties must be put in one species ; many varieties come true 

 to seed; and seedlings seldom revert to worthless forms as do 

 those from almost all other fruits. However, students of the 

 peach must always take variability into account, a character so 

 prominent in this fruit that it may profitably be illustrated by 

 examples. 



Americans know^ varieties with many combinations of round, 

 flat, and beaked fruits, which may have smooth or velvety skins ; 

 red, yellow, or white skins and flesh; free or clinging stones; 

 sweet, tart, or bitter flavor; and which ripen in summer or 

 autumn. The Chinese have peaches with all of these characters 

 and several others unknown to Americans. Thus, a Chinese 

 peach is reported the fruits of which weigh a pound apiece ; 

 another, of the Honey type, is borne on a tree the maximum 

 height of which is eight feet; the leaves of a Chinese variety 

 are extraordinarily long and narrow ; a white-stoned sort is 

 reported from China; and the Feichen peach is said to keep 

 from late September until February. The skin peels readily 

 from a peach raised in the West Indies. The Yellow Transvaal 

 peach in South Africa is said to grow among granite boulders, 

 as a hedge, and beside ditches of running water. A peach with 

 flesh of peculiar fragrance and another with very firm flesh are 

 described as growing in several parts of Asia, in which con- 

 tinent this is a favorite fruit. 



