REPORT OF THE POMOLOGIST. 649 
than in the extreme South and Southwest. Observation and the dearest of all 
teachers, experience, teaches that while the fruits may be subjected to largely 
varied conditions, yet the stern hand of nature has fixed her bounds, beyond which 
human persistence can not force its way. 
We are compelled to regognize that there are not only special strains of peaches, 
but that there are distinctions more obstinate than those of mere strain, which we 
can hardly define without the use of a term no less comprehensive than the designa- 
tion of race. While we may deprecate the multiplication of distinction and the 
interests of peach culture in the higher latitudes have not required an observance 
of the distinctions of race, because only a single race has been comprehended there 
in the entire range of peach culture, yet when we come to investigate the peach in 
lower latitudes, nature forces her classifications upon us with a perseverance that 
admits of no denial. 
We are aware that our declaration of several types of peaches so distinct as to be 
entitled to the designation of the races will be met with criticism by some more 
Northern minds. But in the extreme South, where different races come into part 
cémpetition, the necessity of recognizing the distinctions made by the hand of 
nature is forced upon men of practical experience. Nature seems to have assigned 
to each race special conditions, and therefore special zones. We find that while a 
single race (the Persian) occupies the northern extreme, and another race (the Peen- 
to) occupies the southern extreme of the general fruit zone, yet the intermediate 
zones of the different races so overlap each other that in some cases two or more 
different races are found successful upon ground common to each other. 
In defining the different races it is quite impossible to avoid the use of terms that 
are not more or less arbitrary. And yet we must have names to identify things. 
Should we employ any names in our designations of the races of the peach that are 
illy applied we shall be glad to have them substituted by designations more fitting. 
THE PERSIAN RACE. 
This race includes all varieties springing from the importation from Persia to Italy 
during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, which was introduced into Great Britain 
about 1550, and to the American colonies about 1680. They are all late bloomers 
and can not carry their foliage through the growing season of the southern portion 
of the belt in which they are cultivated. This race includes the varieties usually 
propagated in the northern nurseriés and composes the bulk of the northern or- 
chards. By designating this race of peaches as Persian there isno intimation that all 
peaches are not of primal Asiatic origin. But as the history of this race is univer- 
sally conceded, there can be no question of the propriety of giving it a name refer- 
ring it to the country of its origin. 
We refer to the accompanying diagram, representing the relative position of the 
different races with reference to the isothermal lines. im Texas this race seems suc- 
cessful as far down as Palestine and at some elevated points below. The identifica- 
tion of the isothermal lines bounding these various zones would be a matter of prac- 
tical interest to our people. 
THE NORTHERN CHINESE RACE, 
This race, as far as we have become acquainted with it, consists of the Chinese 
Cling and its numerous progeny. It does not seem to exist in great perfection in the 
northern portion of the general peach zone. It attains its greatest perfection in the 
latitude of northern Texas, and flourishes nearer the coast of Texas than the Persian 
varieties. It succeds well as far southward as Austin, while below that point it 
diminishes in productiveness and longevity till a little below Gonzales; most of 
its varieties become worthless. We would expect it to succeed everywhere in the 
zone corresponding with the one indicated by the places in Texas which we have 
named. Some of its varieties (notably the Thurber) creep still farther south under 
the influence of a moist atmosphere. it might be remarked here that there are found 
to be notable instances in which a humid atmosphere causes fruits to flourish below 
what would otherwise have been their limit. 
The Northern Chinese race is remarkable for the great size of its fruit, as well as 
the peculiar almond-like appearance of its foliage, so peculiar also to the Southern 
Chinese race of peaches. Judging from what we can see of the Chinese peaches in 
the United States, we might conclude that there is quite as much contrast in China 
between their northern and southern types as we can observe in the great peach belt 
of our country. 
