432 



DOMESTIC NOTICES, 



as the iloctrinp of most writers, that .ill our fine ap- 

 ples are iiroilucetl from the wild erab. In Ohio, 

 Kenliiclcy, ami other western stales, the wild crab 

 lias nourished and been ro-produced from seed 

 for thousands of years; and there were, and still 

 are, larjre natural orchards of them. If this theory 

 be true, why is it, that amiilst our millions of new 

 seeclling:s, no improvement in the quality of the 

 fruit is to be found/ Is it, for the sap^e reason 

 given me by a scientific horticulturist, that in one 

 case, "the seed is sown by the wind, and covered 

 by the rain," and in the other, " planted by man, 

 with the object to improve the fruit;" or the rea- 

 son given by another, that " to improve fruit, you 

 must sow the seed of the defective fruit, from the 

 extreme enil of the branches, and that Providence 

 is not aware of the fact, ami makes no selection." 



Regarding your assertion, that '' the Boston nec- 

 tarine was produced from a Peach stone." Is it 

 not strange, if this be true, that in raising millions 

 of peach trees from the stone, the only one changed 

 to a nectarine, should have been the Boston. When 

 you will believe on much stronger evitlence than 

 can be produced in the case of the nectarine, that 

 I raiseil three kimls of forest trees, from three ap- 

 ricot stones, I will believe the day of miracles has 

 returned, under-write all Professor Bush may 

 publish on mesmerism, and no longer dispute the 

 Boston nectarine story. I obtained three apricot 

 stones from Mexico, and planted them in a small 

 pot, in a triangular form, and placed the pot in a hot 

 bed. The soil was taken from my garden. In a 

 few days there came up in the pot, similarly loca- 

 ted, three forest trees, and none other. I trans- 

 planted them into larger pots, and when of proper 

 size, into the open ground. I kept the trees till 

 they were seven or eight feet high, and intelligent 

 botanists assured me they were trees unknown in 

 this region. Can you produce as strong evidence 

 that the Boston nectarine came from a peach stone? 

 It seems strange to me, that the evidence in the 

 case of the Boston nectarine, could be viewed as 

 even raising a presumption, that it was produced 

 from a jieach stone. By a close examination, the 

 nectarine tree can be readily distinguished from the 

 peach tree. Yours with regard, N. Longworth. 

 Cincinnati, Jan. 30, 1847. 



P. S. — I claim that we people of the west, have 

 some right to know more of certain matters and 

 things, than the wise men of the east. We now 

 have a society of intelligent men, who hold daily 

 intercourse with the celestial world. 



Remarks. — Our friend, Mr. Longworth, is a 

 "terrible unbeliever" in all matters that run coun- 

 ter to his own experience. The " Nectarine sto- 

 ry," to which he refers, is the account of the ori- 

 gin of the Boston nectarine, in our first number, 

 by S. G. Perkins, Esq., of Boston. But there is 

 nothing really strange Or novel in this matter of 

 the specific identity of the Peach and Nectarine. 

 We have heard of other instances of a peach stone 

 producing a nectarine in this country, and there is 

 an example now standing in a garden within half 

 a mile of our residence. 



The following extract from LotrDox's Encyclo- 

 pedia of Gardening, page 906, will show that this 



fact has for a long time been well understood in 



Kuiope. 



" There are various instances on record, (see 

 Gard. Mag., vol. 1, ji. 171,) of both fruits (peach 

 and nectarine) growing on the same tree, even on 

 the same branch ; anil one case has occurred, of a 

 single fruit partaking of the natureof both, (Gard. 

 Mag., vol. iv, p. 53.) The French consider them 

 as one fruit, arranging them in four divisions; the 

 p'chcs, or free-stone peaches; the pt'chcsiissrs, free 

 stone nectarine, or freestone smooth i)eachcs; the 

 paries, or cling-stone peaches; and the fcri/^'/io'is, 

 cling nectarines, or cling-stone smooth peaches." 



In other words, the French consider the necta- 

 rine only a smootli skinned variety of the peach, 

 (pi'ches lisses, being literally smooth -peach.) 



Touching the imi)rovemcnt of fruits, our corres- 

 pondent must remember that it is a law of the ve- 

 getable kingdom, that a wilil species, in its natural 

 state, has no tendency to vary, and its seed will 

 therefore probably re-produce the same forever. 

 When, however, a species of wild fruit is " domes- 

 ticateil" by ganlen culture, some of its seedlings — 

 perhaps at first only one in a thousand — will show 

 a tendency to vary, and it is on planting the seeds 

 of the plant showing this tendency, that the career 

 of the "improvement of races" begins. 



The wild crab, to which Mr. Longworth re- 

 fers, as having re-produced itself for thousands of 

 years, in Ohio and Kentucky, is not the wild crab 

 from whence our apples sprung, (Pyrus malus,) 

 since the latter is not a native of North America. 

 The natural orchards of " wild crabs" referred to, 

 we suppose are the native species, P. coronaria. 

 As this species has never been domesticated, or re- 

 produced twice in succession, to our knowl'dge, 

 from seeds grown in gardens, of course there is 

 little or no appearance in its seedlings, of im- 

 provement or departure from the original form of 

 the species. As twenty-two varieties of ai){)les 

 were known in Pliny's time, it is evident that the 

 first variation from the wild crab of the other 

 hemisphere,must have commenced about two thou- 

 sand years ago; and remembering this, we cannot 

 be astonished at the results attained in this day. Ed. 



St7PERB Collection of Camellias. — We have 

 rarely feasted our eyes with more floral delight 

 than during a late visit to the conservatory of N. 

 J. Becar, Esq., Atlantic street, Brooklyn. Mr. 

 Becar-s taste leads him to devote his range of 

 glass almost wholly to Camellias, and his collection, 

 it is well known to connoisseurs, is not surpassed 

 by anj' other in America — though as it is entirely- 

 private, it is comparatively little known to the pub- 

 lic generally. 



Nothing is so satisfactory as to see any one thing 

 perfectly done, and we may safely bestow this high 

 praise on Mr. Becar's superb Camellia collection. 

 It not only embraces every rare and beautiful spe- 

 cies that could be procured from the collections of 

 Europe or this country, but the plants are culti- 

 vated in a faultless manner, and the specimens of 

 many of the varieties are not only exceedin'jly 

 large, but display a symmetry of form and a size 

 and beauty of blossom very seldom seen. 



