Account of a Peach Tree produced from an Almond Tree, 199 



wind, blowing over an iceberg which intercepts all that is below, 

 causes the atmosphere to be denser above than it is below/ and 

 consequently the light above passes into the eye, while that which 

 is below passes outside of it. 



XXVI IT, An Account of a Peach Tree produced from the Seed 

 of the Almond Tree ; with some Observations on the Origin of 

 the Peach Tree. By Thomas Andrew Knight, £50. F. R. S, 

 RL.S. &c. President*. 



JL BEG leave to send to the Society a couple of peaches, of a new 

 variety: not, however, on account of any merits which I suppose 

 the variety to possess, but solely on account of the singularity of 

 its origin, it being the offspring of a sweet almond and of the 

 pollen only of a peach. The tree produced six peaches besides 

 those I have sent you; three of which cleft open, like almonds, 

 when nearly ripe, whilst the others retained the form and charac- 

 ter of peaches, and the flesh of all was perfectly soft and melting. 

 One of these was considerably larger than the largest you receive, 

 having measured eight inches in circumference ; and as the tree 

 grew in a pot, which did not contain a square foot of mould, and 

 the first fruit of every seedling tree has proved, in all my experi- 

 ments, to be of much less size than its subsequent produce, I 

 imagine that the future fruit of this variety will a good deal ex- 

 ceed the bulk indicated by the present sample. 



The general character and quality of the fruit I send, and the 

 diminished size of its stone, comparatively with that of the al- 

 mond, will, I fear, induce the Society to apprehend some error 

 in the experiment: but I beg to assure them that none can pos- 

 sibly have occurred; and that the result was as unexpected by 

 me as it would have been by them; for I did not, entertain the 

 slightest hope that a tree capable of producing a melting peach 

 could have been, by any means, obtained immediately from an 

 almond. I had, however, long before entertained an opinion, that 

 the common almond and the peach tree constituted only a single 

 species, and that the almond might, by proper culture, through 

 many successive generations, be ultimately converted into a peach 

 or nectarine. 



Many circumstances in the ancient history of the peach con- 

 joined to lead me to this conclusion. It does not appear to have 

 been known in Europe till about tiie reign of tiie Emperor Clau- 

 dius : and it is, I believe, first mentioned by Columella. Pliny 

 lias given the first accurate description of it ; and he states it to 

 have come through Egypt and Rhodes into Italy from Persia, 



*' From the Trun:>actioiis of the Horticultural Society of London. 



N 4 which 



