SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 215 



peach, native of China, probably, but long in 

 cultivation in Europe and all countries that touch 

 the old highway through Persia to the Mediter- 

 ranean. The Chinese cultivated it at a remote 

 period, and it was carried into Europe three cen- 

 turies before the birth of Christ. The early 

 colonists brought it to America; here it thrives in 

 all sections that have a mild winter climate. 



A peculiarity of the peach is that the pit is very 

 rough, while the pits of plums, apricots, and cher- 

 ries are smooth. Another is that some varieties 

 are clingstones, others freestones. The fuzzy 

 skin of a peach is thick or thin, according to the 

 variety, red or yellow, the flesh yellow or white. 

 Occasionally smooth peaches occur with furry ones 

 on the same tree. A tree that has borne peaches 

 may produce a crop of fruits that are all smooth. 

 Or half of the limbs may bear one sort, and the 

 rest the other. Indeed, a single fruit may be half 

 furry and half smooth. 



A smooth peach is called a nectarine. The seed 

 of a nectarine will almost always produce a nec- 

 tarine tree. Yet the peach is counted the par- 

 ent and the nectarine a changeling child, a "sport," 

 illustrating the fact that in plants and animals 

 there is no law so stable as the law that produces 

 constant variations from the type. The offspring 



