CHAPTER XXIII 



VARIETIES OF APRICOTS 



California has a monopoly of the apricot industry, furnishing 

 America with fresh fruits and the whole Avorld with the cured 

 and canned product. Elsewhere in the United States the apri- 

 cot is grown for the occasional crop the trees may produce, but 

 chiefly as an ornamental. Apricot cultivation is confined to 

 California on this continent because the blossoms appear so 

 early — first of all tree-fruits — that elsewhere they are usually 

 caught by spring frosts. The Russian apricots are not so often 

 injured by frosts at blooming time, but the fruits are hardly 

 worth having after they are in hand. Only twelve varieties of 

 this fruit are described, and these less satisfactorily to the 

 author than the varieties of any other fruit. 



INDEX TO VARIETIES OF APEICOTS 



Blenheim, 493 Moorpark, 490 



Budd, 486 Royal, 492 



Early Moorpark, 489 St. Ambroise, 496 



Hemskirke, 491 Shense, 485 



Large Early, 495 Shipley, 493 



Large Early Montgamet, 494 Smyrna, 487 

 Luizet, 488 



KEY TO VARIETIES OF APRICOTS 



A. Fruits borne in clusters. (Russian apricots) 

 B. Size large; round, compressed; flesh yel- 

 low 485. Shense. 



BB. Size small; oval, sides unequal; flesh 



orange 486. Budd. 



AA. Fruits borne singly. (Common apricots) 

 B. Shape round or nearly so. 



C. Kernel sweet; skin pale yellow; flesh 



yellow 487. Smyrna. 



CC. Kernel bitter. 



D. Color deep yellow with crimson blush 



and dots; flesh yellow; season early... 488. Luizet. 

 DD. Color orange; flesh orange. 



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