266 FLORIDA FRUITS PEACHES AND PLUMS. 



CHAPTER XXVH. 



PEACHES* AND PLUMS. 



Who does not love it, the luscious, juicy, fragrant peach ? 

 Why, the very mention of it, when it is not within our 

 reach, is enough to " make the mouth water" and the nos- 

 trils expand in the futile hope of recalling the taste and 

 smell of past pleasures connected with that "fruit of the 

 gods." 



We have yet to meet with the first person who avows a 

 distaste for a fine, aromatic peach, and, strange to say, we 

 have met with but few more who could tell * ' whence its 

 name or what's its name." 



The botanical designation of the peach, Amygdalus Per- 

 sica, at once reveals its origin and the land of its nativity, 

 for to Persia do we owe this most popular fruit, and yet, 

 strange to say, in this, its native home, it was considered 

 unwholesome, and so was far from being the favorite it now 

 is with the civilized world. In point of fact, it really was 

 unwholesome in those^days, just as it is now, where its due 

 care and cultivation are neglected or not understood, for 

 the peach is one of those aristocratic trees that object to 

 "roughing it" through the world, and will not flourish as 

 it might if not intelligently waited upon by its owner. 



Hence, in Media, that province of Persia to which we 

 owe our improved peach of to-day, the fruit seldom ripened, 

 the flesh was tough and indigestible, and the flavor bitter, 

 and all because its true character and requirements were 

 unknown. Just exactly as many a human heart has be- 

 come toughened and embittered from not being understood 

 and rightly treated by those about it. 



*Peaches Originally published in the Florida Agriculturist. 



