82 OUR COMMON FRUITS. 



and become pulpy," considering that " nut," as it is popu- 

 larly reckoned, to be really to the peach what the crab is 

 to the apple and the sloe to the plum. This theory he 

 justified by an experiment in hybridization, which resulted 

 in an almond-tree fecundated by the pollen of peach 

 blossoms producing a fruit which combined the flesh of 

 the latter with the kernel of the former. Du Hamel, too, 

 speaks of an amandiere-pecJier, the fruit of which mostly 

 splits at the furrow while on the tree, as does the almond- 

 husk, the flesh being sometimes quite worthless, sometimes 

 very tolerable, and the kernel differing little from an 

 almond ; and that some such effect was known even to 

 the ancients, though wrongly attributed by them to graft- 

 ing, may be gathered from the statement of Pliny, that 

 " the plum-tree grafted on the nut exhibits what we may 

 call a piece of impudence quite its own, for it produces 

 a fruit which has all the appearance of the parent stock 

 together with the juice of the adopted fruit, and in con- 

 sequence of its being thus compounded of both, it is 

 known by the name of nuci-pruna, or " nut-plum." Colu- 

 mella adopts the story of a poisonous gift treacherously 

 conveyed to Egypt, alluding in his ancient treatise on the 

 garden to 



"Apples which most barbarous Persia sent 

 With native poison armed (as Fame relates), 

 Though now they 've lost their power to kill, and yield 

 Am brosian juice, and have forgot to hurt, 

 But of their country still retain the name" ; 



though some ancient writers affirm that this legend re- 

 ferred not to the " persica" but the "persa" a very dif- 

 ferent fruit, not identified with any now known; and 

 others assert that the peach was really first planted at 

 Memphis, and assuredly with no bad motive, by Perseus, 

 on which account Alexander chose it afterwards as the 

 tree that should supply crowns to the victors in the games 

 instituted in that city in honour of his dragon- slay ing 

 ancestor. In the days of Pliny it had only been lately 

 (during the reign of the Emperor Claudius) and with 

 considerable difficulty brought into Italy ; and he records 

 that in the island of Ehodes, its first resting-place on the 

 way from Egypt, it remained perfectly barren : nor does 



