228 DESCRIPTION OF THE FRUIT OF AN APRICOT TREE. 



horseback from that place for Granada on the borders of the Lake 

 of Nicaragua, having hired for the conveyance of my collection 

 and luggage a cart drawn by oxen, which performed the distance 

 of 150 miles in six days, whilst we arrived in four. At Granada 

 we embarked in a canoe, and keeping close in shore on the north- 

 ern side, arrived after three days' rowing at the eastern extremity 

 of the lake, whence we began to descend the river of San Juan, 

 and reached the settlement of San Juan de Nicaragua on the 21st 

 of April. On the 24tli I took my passage on board the ' Severn,' 

 one of the West India steamers, and arrived at Southampton, 

 after a very fine passage, on the 3rd of June. 



XXIV. — Description of the Fruit of an Apricot Tree grotving 

 in my Garden at Betias^ near Suedia, in the Pachalik of 

 Aleppo. By John Barker, Esq. 



This variety was produced seven years ago from the stone of the 

 sweet-kernelled apricot of Ispahan, called " SJmker Para " (a 

 bit of sugar). It bore one fruit in 1845. Last year it bore 30, 

 and now, June the 16th, 1847, it is bearing 140 ripe fruit. It 

 is the latest but one of the 13 varieties of the apricots with a sweet 

 kernel in Suedia. It is a free-growing healthy tree, and a great 

 bearer. Of upwards of 300 grafts and buds " worked " from it, 

 only two or three failed. This year four of its medium-size 

 fruit weighed 4|oz. (Troy), and five of the largest 8^oz. Four 

 of the medium-size stones (from a fruit just gathered) weighed 

 only 2 drams. They were cracked easily with the teeth. Its 

 diminutive stone is its peculiar distinction ; it is not a cling-stone. 

 It is rather conque-shaped. The colour yellowish-white one 

 third, and dingy purplish-light-red the other two. 



It resembles the " Elruge " nectarine, not merely in colour, 

 but somewhat in fonii, and in its absolute absence of all down. 

 It resembles likewise the nectarine in the peculiar consistence of 

 the skin. The skin cannot be peeled, but it must be well masti- 

 cated while its sugary, soft, juicy pulp is in the mouth, in order 

 to correct the excessive sweetness of the latter, because the only 

 particles which contain acidity reside in the skin, for which reason 

 it is often eaten preferably ten days before perfect maturity. It 

 has great affinity to tlie plum by reason of its smooth skin, its 

 small stone, of a sweetness that not merely rivals but surpasses 

 that of the green-gage, and more than all of its almost absolute 

 want of the apricot perfume. All other sorts of sweet-kernelled 

 apricots have more or less a bitterish sour after-taste, as if the 

 remnant of a bit of sugar-candy still lingered in your mouth. 



Two anomalies relating to " The Suedia Green-gage ApricoC^ 



