2l6 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



most unlike the parent is often the one most able 

 to survive. 



The English gardener raises delicious peaches 

 under glass, and trained on south walls where they 

 can get all the sun possible. The sunnier lands 

 to the South grow the fruit to greatest perfection. 

 America has large orchards of varieties that are 

 solid enough to stand packing and shipping, as the 

 dessert qualities could not do. The canneries 

 take care of the surplus, so we get from market, 

 fresh and canned, plenty of this wholesome fruit. 

 But in order to know what excellence the peach can 

 attain to, one must raise a few trees of the best 

 French varieties in a greenhouse, and let the tree 

 carry the fruit until it is soft under a gentle 

 pressure of the ball of the thumb. 



APRICOTS 



The apricot is a woolly plum, or it may be more 

 accurate to say that the plum is a smooth apricot. 

 Botanists and horticulturists recognize the close 

 relationship between the two groups of species. 

 They both belong to the genus Prunus. From the 

 woods of Armenia the apricot has been carried to 

 all parts of the world. Apricots are in the markets 

 of California and other warmer states in Australia 



