NECTARINES. 



We have been able to find but few nectarine growers in Kansas, 

 and the few quoted do not speak very encouragingly of its value. 

 Personally we believe it susceptible of profitable culture to add to the 

 variety of home fruits. Possibly some of our horticulturists will take 

 it in hand and produce varieties suited to our state. It ought to be 

 as good as the peach, and freedom from fuzz, velvet or down must 

 surely be a pleasing and valuable characteristic. If it is simply a 

 "peach with a smooth skin," then why is it not as worthy as a " peach 

 with a fuzzy skin'"? 



Downing mentions thirty-one distinct varieties. 



DEFINITIONS. 



Cenfui'!/ IJictionaft/ : Sweet or delicious as nectar. A variety of 

 the common peach, from wdiich its fruit differs only in having a rind 

 devoid of down and a firmer jjulp. Both fruits are sometimes found 

 growing on the .same tree. 



Standard Dictlonai'y : A smooth- skinned variety of peach. Span- 

 ish nectarine, the plum-like fruit of the West Indian tree, Chryso- 

 halanus Icaco ; also called cocoa plum. It is made into a sweet 

 conserve which is largely exported from Cuba. 



THE NECTARINE. 



From Downing's "Fruit and Fruit-trees of America." 



The nectarine {Persica vulgaris) is only a variety of the peach 

 with a smooth skin ( Peche lisse, or Brugnon, of the French ) in its 

 growth, habit, and tree. The fruit, however, is rather smaller, per- 

 fectly smooth, Mdthout down, and is one of the most wax-like and ex- 

 quisite of all productions for the dessert. In flavor it is perhaps 

 scarcely so rich as the finest peach, but it has more piquancy, par- 

 taking of the noyau or peach-leaf flavor. The nectarine is known in 

 northern India, where it is called moondla aroo (smooth peach.) It 



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