THE PEACH. 87 



double the size of European ones, are considered the finest 

 in the world. Nor is the superiority of these celestial 

 growths simply of a material nature, for a spiritual sig- 

 nificance also attaches to them, undreamed of as regards 

 the wall-fruit grown by earthly-minded barbarians, the 

 peach-tree seeming to hold very much the same place in 

 ancient Chinese writings that the Tree of Knowledge 

 does in the Hebrew Scriptures, or the golden apples of 

 Hesperides in the classic mythology ; and it is said that 

 traditions are preserved in early Chinese books, both of 

 a Peach-tree of Life, which bore only once in 1,000 years, 

 but the fruit of which when eaten conferred immortality, 

 and of a Peach-tree of Knowledge, which had existed in 

 remote ages on a mountain guarded by 100 demons, and 

 " whose mortal taste brought death " to those who par- 

 took of its produce. Whatever may be thought of these 

 gatherings in the field of fancy, it would seem to be a fact 

 that the ordinary fruit (for no sucker of those divinely- 

 gifted trees survives in these degenerate days) is looked 

 on rather as a food than as an occasional luxury, for 

 " Tao-yuen " (translated " a peach-tree and a spring ") is a 

 common byword in China to express philosophical retire- 

 ment a saying derived from the history of one of their 

 sages, who sought solitude in a desert, and found enough 

 to satisfy all the wants of nature in these two sources of 

 nourishment, the only ones it afforded. Considering the 

 large per centage of water shown in the analysis of the 

 ripe fruit, a carping Diogenes might even then perhaps 

 have called the spring a luxurious superfluity. 



But however abundant peaches may be in China, there 

 is no country in the world where they are grown in such 

 quantity as in. the United States, while, as regards quality, 

 those of America surpass all except the Chinese. In the 

 Eastern States some artificial aid is generally required, 

 but in many parts they grow almost spontaneously, and 

 thousands of acres are devoted to this crop to supply 

 New York and Philadelphia. Extreme plenty causing 

 fastidiousness, in seasons of abundance whole sloop-loads 

 of this fruit, of second quality or slightly decayed, may 

 be seen thrown into the North River in a single morning. 



