The Peach. 81 



and in the negative, though the epicure may be forgiven 

 should his fancy rest for a moment, while scanning the 

 possibilities, upon this queen of the stone-fruits a gift of 

 nature at all events more pleasant to associate with the 

 garden of the four rivers, than the great, pale yellow, and 

 not very shapely cousin of the orange and lemon com- 

 monly called the " forbidden fruit." The peach is one 

 of the fruits which, like many flowers, imitating the sun 

 at noonday, have their meridian. There is just an hour, 

 not much more, when the odour and the taste of this 

 regal fruit are at the highest pitch. Fortunate is he who 

 then secures it ! That hour is like the day it must be 

 one of brightness overhead when the horse-chestnut 

 keeps festival, dressed to the topmost pinnacle with 

 bouquets fit for princesses. The meridian passed, the 

 fruit is still delicious, the tree imposing, but now it is 

 the afternoon. Accustomed, as most people are, to see 

 peach-trees nailed to a garden wall, or trained and tied, 

 limb by limb, finger by finger, to a trellis under glass, 

 their singular beauty, when living a life of freedom, is in 

 general unknown. A standard peach-tree in full bearing 

 is a spectacle, once beheld, never to be forgotten. In 

 our own country it cannot often be hoped for, and then 

 it will be found only in the southernmost counties. At 

 Strood, on the Medway, some years ago, there were trees 

 quite ten feet high, and eight feet through, bearing three 

 to five hundred really good fruit apiece. Still, for the 

 perfect realization of the standard peach, it is needful to 

 visit the Continent, Italy in particular. Peaches do not 



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