DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



The seam which separated the two halves of the 

 fruit was very distinct— on one side the nectarine 

 protruded, whilst on the ojiposite edge the peach 

 swelled out and the nectarine receded, present- 

 ing the appearance of half a peach and half anec« 

 tarine, nut regularly placed together, but slip- 

 ped a little to one side, and then united by a 

 subsequent growth. Tiie stone was on the 

 peach side deeply furrowed and corrugated, as 

 Is the case in the peach stone, and on the other 

 less indented and more smooth, as in the nec- 

 tarine. We had some expectation of finding a 

 double kernel, but in this we were disappoint- 

 ed. It is a single kernel, well filled, and which 

 we have planted, although, even should it pro- 

 duce a tree, we have little expectation of its 

 bearing similar fruit. 



An interesting inquiry still remains for the 

 consideiation t)f botanists. By what process in 

 nature has this fruit been produced? We were 

 infromed by our friend President Finley, who 

 sent us a communication which accompanied 

 the fruit, " that it grew on a tree of Mr. Zeag- 

 ler's about ten or twelve miles from Aiken, and 

 that there were no nectarine trees on the farm." 



It has now been fully established by botan- 

 ists, that the peach and nectarine are mere va- 

 rieties of one species, {Annjgdalus persica.) 

 These varieties are only preserved with their 

 separate peculiarities by budding, grafting on 

 the roots, and other artificial modes. Bees and 

 other winged insects, are known to carry the 

 pollen of fertilizing dust to great distances, 

 which is communicated to the pistil. Hence, 

 in our apples, pears, peaches, plums, corn, &c., 

 we cannot calculate with certainty on a product 

 similar to the original fruit. We cannot ac- 

 count for the peculiarity in this nectarine-peach 

 on any other principle than that of a double 

 fertilization of the pistil by a bee or other in- 

 sect, and that whilst the pollen of the peach 

 communicates its peculiar projterties to one side 

 of the fruit, that of the nectarine was convey- 

 ed to the other. The occurrences, however, 

 are as rare as that of a somewhat analogous 

 phenomenon in tlie human subject. We recol- 

 lect having read in the Horticultural Transac- 

 tions, vol. 1st., of a single fruit having been 

 produced with the coat of the peach on one 

 side, and that of the nectarine on the other, 

 but have no opportunity of referring more par- 

 ticularly to that work. It was also, we think, 

 stated that in one instance a tree was produced 

 which on one side had the downy coat of the 

 peach, and on the other the smooth bark of the 

 nectarine. This is repeated in a recent English 

 work — Description of Vegetable Substances, 

 Fruits, &c., 297. B. 



New Zealand Spinach. — A correspondent 

 who is a good judge of greens, complains that 

 we have never recommended one of the most 

 valuable of all the tribe — especially for sum- 

 mer use — the New Zealand Spinach, and sends 

 us the following note of this plant — the seeds 



of which may be had at Thorburn's or any 

 other of the large seed stores. Ed. 



New Zealand Spinach, (Tetragoniaexpansa.) 

 so called, because it was found growing wild on 

 the shores of New Zealand when Captain Cook 

 first touched at that island. Although the na- 

 lives made no use of this plant as an esculent, 

 the naturalists who accompanied the expedition 

 were induced to recommend it as a vegetable 

 which might be safely eaten, since its appear- 

 ance and general characteristics were so similar 

 to the Chenopodium. On trial, it was found 

 to be both agr-.'eable and wholesome. Sir Joseph 

 Banks brought it into culture in England in 

 1772, and it has subsequently been found to be 

 a much more hardy and valuable plant than 

 was at first supposed. It was at first treated 

 as a green-house plant; but now grows freely 

 in the open garden, and indeed seems already 

 to have naturalized itself in the south-west of 

 England. A writer, from Exmouth, observes, 

 in the " Gardener's Magazine" for February 

 1829, "The New Zealand Spinach is quite a 

 weed with us, as, wherever it has once grown, 

 plants rise spontaneously, even when the seeds 

 have been wheeled out with the dung in the 

 the winter, and again brought in as manure in 

 the spring. I have now a full supply of it in 

 my old pink bed." This Spinach has an ad- 

 vantage over the common sort under cultiva- 

 tion, in producing an abundance of large and 

 succulent leaves during the hot weather, when 

 the latter plant runs almost immediately to seed, 

 and produces little or nothing. It is likewise 

 milder in flavor, and of so rapid growth, that 

 a bed with about 20 plants is sufficient for the 

 daily supply of a large family. Though by 

 some called a biennial, this Spinach is an an- 

 nual in our climate. The stem has numerous 

 thick and strong branches, somewhat procum- 

 bent for the greater part of their length, but 

 raised at the points. The leaves are fleshy and 

 succulent, three or four inches long, of a dark 

 green on the under part, but of a paler color 

 on the surface, on which the midribs and nerves 

 arc strongly marked. They are triangular, or 

 rather of an elongated heart-shape, having the 

 angles at the base rounded, and the apex sharp 

 and extended. The flowers are small, and of 

 a yellowish green color ; they appear in August 

 and September. The whole plant is thickly 

 studded with minute aqueous tubercles; a pe- 

 culiarity likewise to be found in some species 

 of atriplex and chenopodium. In six weeks 

 after sowing, some of the leaves of the plants 

 are fit for gathering. These are pinched off, 

 and not torn from the branches. This plant 

 has been likewise found growing on the Tonga 

 islands; and Thumberg discovered it of spon- 

 taneous growth in Japan. New Zealand Spinach 

 is remarkable as being almost the only native 

 of the isles of Australasia which has been found 

 wortliy of a place in the kitchen-gardens of 

 Europe. — Rhind^s Vegetable Kingdom 



Bkxdgman says, " its nature seems 



