78 ORCHARD TREES. 



shrub, very common on many parts of the New England 

 coast and on the islands around it. There is nothing re- 

 markable in its appearance or in the beauty of its fruit, 

 which is of a dark-blue color and about the size of dam- 

 sons. The other species is a tree of considerable size, 

 which is very beautiful when covered with its ripe scarlet 

 berries. In the State of Maine they are called "plum- 

 granates," and are very generally used for culinary pur- 



The PEACH-TREE, of all the tenants of the garden and 

 orchard, is the most beautiful when in flower, varying in 

 the color of its bloom from a delicate blush to a light 

 crimson. As it puts forth its flowers before the leaves, 

 the tree presents to view the likeness of a magnificent 

 bouquet. When covering many acres of ground, nothing 

 in nature can surpass it in splendor, flowering, as it does, 

 sooner than almost any other tree. Even in New England, 

 where these trees are now seen only in occasional groups, 

 they constitute an important object in the landscape, when 

 in flower. Few persons are aware how much interest the 

 peach-tree adds to the landscape in early spring, by its 

 suggestions as well as its beauty. Since the changeable- 

 ness of our winter and the harshness of our spring weather 

 have been aggravated by the destruction of our Northern 

 forests, the peach-tree is so liable to perish that its cul- 

 tivation has been neglected, and trees of this species 

 are now very scarce in New England, except in the gar- 

 dens of wealthy men. We no longer meet them as for- 

 merly in our journeyings through rustic farms, when 

 they were interspersed among apple-trees, adorning every 

 by-way in the country. 



