PEACHES AND NECTARINES 185 



question of the way in which the superfluous skin 

 covering can be eliminated. 



We may feel quite sure that unless the woolly 

 coating at some time served an important pur- 

 pose, it would never have been developed; or, 

 once developed, it would not have been retained. 



That is assuming, however, that the peach de- 

 veloped this unusual fruit covering in a state of 

 nature, and without the aid of man's selective in- 

 fluence, which it certainly did. 



How THE PEACH OBTAINED ITS COAT 



If it could be shown that the fuzz was devel- 

 oped only after the peach came under cultivation, 

 and in response to man's wishes, the case would 

 be altered. In that event it might readily be that 

 the fuzzy covering, appearing first as an acci- 

 dental "sport," had been retained because it 

 pleased the fancy of some plant experimenter, or 

 met the taste of some influential market man 

 say of Athens in the olden days, or of Rome in 

 the time of its power. 



But the peach had its fuzzy coat at a time 

 vastly more remote than this. It is almost cer- 

 tain that the coat was developed long before the 

 fruit came under cultivation. 



The fair presumption is, probably, that the an- 

 cestor of the peach, wandering from one territory 



