70 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



stone, to nectarine. The arguments against such a descent have been given 

 elsewhere. 



The chief differences between the two species are to be found in the 

 matured fruits though, at first thought, it might appear that these are not 

 greater than those found in widely separated varieties of either of the two 

 species. The fruits of the peach and the almond are, however, much more 

 widely separated than any of the varieties of either species, inasmuch as 

 the differences are several and have to do with parts not usually affected 

 by cultivation and not the subject of selection by the cultivator. Thus, 

 the fruit of the peach is a delectable esculent; that of the almond inedible; 

 the flesh of the peach, the mesocarp, is soft, fleshy, juicy; that of the almond 

 thin, tough and leathery; the pit of the peach must be removed while that 

 of the almond drops naturally from the hard flesh which splits at maturity. 

 The differences between the pits of the two species are quite as marked as 

 in the flesh of the fruit. The pit of the peach is deeply sculptured, pitted, 

 and of a bone-like consistency; that of the almond is nearly smooth and in 

 most varieties is much thinner and of softer texture. The differences in 

 the kernels are such as could easily be brought about by selection, some 

 peach-kernels being sweet and edible and some almond-kernels being too 

 bitter to be palatable. 



Coming to the tree-characters we find that there are several which 

 differ sufficiently to give each of the two fruits distinct specific rank. The 

 winter aspect of the two trees is wholly different. The almond resembles 

 a young apple tree in color of bark more than it does the peach and has, 

 too, a head much like that of a broad-topped, much-branched apple. In 

 foliage the distant aspect is much the same, but examined closely there are 

 several distinctions that hold in comparing the two species. The leaves 

 of the peach are more broadly lanceolate than those of the almond, coarsely 

 serrate or crenate while the margins of almond-leaves are finely serrate. 

 The glands on the leaf-stalk or leaf of the peach are globose, reniform or 

 mixed; on the almond, the glands are globose. The flowers in the t\^o 

 species are similar but the time of flowering is markedly different. The 

 color of the petals in both varies from pale pink to deep pink with occasional 

 pure white forms; the flowers of true almonds are always large while those 

 of the peach are about equally divided between large and small. The 

 almond, in New York, is out of bloom before flowers of the peach appear, 

 the difference in blooming-time being from one to three weeks. 



