94 FRUIT GARDEN. 



mediately from the joints of the tree, in the form of little 

 buds, with a perforation at the end, but not opening or 

 showing anything like petals or the ordinary parts of fruc- 

 tification. As the fig enlarges, the flower comes to maturity 

 in concealment, and in eastern countries the fruit is im- 

 proved by a singular operation called caprification. This 

 is performed by suspending by threads, above the cultivated 

 figs, branches of the wild fig, which are full of a species of 

 cynips. When the insect has become winged, it quits the 

 wild fig and penetrates the cultivated ones, for the purpose 

 of laying its eggs ; and thus it appears both to insure the 

 fructification by dispersing the pollen, and afterwards to 

 hasten the ripening by puncturing the pulp and causing a 

 change of the nutritious juices. In France this operation 

 is imitated by inserting straws dipped in olive-oil." — Lib. 

 of Ent. Knowledge. 



The Peach (Amygdalns Persica) is a stone-fruit of 

 oriental origin, said to have been brought from Persia by 

 the Romans about the beginning of the empire ; but the 

 precise period of its introduction into our British gardens, 

 of which it has long been the pride and ornament, is not 

 well ascertained. There are two principal varieties : the 

 Peach, properly so called, with a downy skin ; and the 

 Nectarine, with a smooth skin. These, following the 

 authority of Linnseus, we consider as one species ; and as 

 their culture is precisely the same, we shall speak of them 

 as distinct only when referring to their sub-varieties. Each 

 of these varieties is again divided by gardeners into free- 

 stones or ^ec/z-es, and clingstones or pavies, according as 

 the stone parts freely from the pulp or adheres to it. We 

 shall here treat chiefly of the freestones, as being most 

 hardy and fittest for the open wall in Britain. 



