178 THE MANAGEMENT OF [CHAP. VII. 



days before it becomes ripe, it will bear to be 

 transported to a considerable distance. On 

 one occasion, indeed, in India, it was actually- 

 sent, packed in cotton, a month's journey by a 

 caravan. The colour is a yellowish white, 

 tinoed on one side with a somewhat dingy 

 purplish red. The fruit resembles a nectarine 

 in the. consistence of its skin, which can- 

 not be peeled. It has, also, a great affinity 

 to the green-gage plum, and the kernel is 

 perfectly sweet. The apricot flowers sooner 

 than any other wall tree; and the sap, when 

 only partially released by the thawing of that 

 side of the branch which is nearest the sun, is 

 consequently in more rapid motion, and is 

 more likely to lacerate the vessels, than the 

 sap of trees that are later in producing flowers. 

 This theory, which was first broached by Mr. 

 Barron, the very scientific gardener at Elvaston 

 Castle, has since been confirmed by the fact 

 which has been repeatedly observed, that the 

 branches prematurely killed are always on a 

 south wall, and in a situation exposed to the 

 sun. The effect of the frozen and partially- 

 thawn sap is sometimes only shown in the 

 bark, which cracks, and permits the super- 

 abundant sap to exude in the form of gum ; 

 but, when this relief is not sufficient, the 

 branch becomes sickly, and finally dies soon 

 after midsummer, about the time of the return 

 of the sap. The best mode of preventing this 

 serious evil is to begin protecting the branches 

 long before the flowers appear, and, indeed, 

 Mr. Barron keeps them covered all the winter. 

 Apricot trees should be twenty-five feet apart 



