VARIETIES. 469 



trouble themselves to destroy the insect, but in gardens, it is 

 much better to do so. A mixture of whale oil soap or strong 

 soft soap and water, with some tobacco stems boiled in it, and 

 the whole applied to the branches from below, with a syringe or 

 garden engine, will soon rid the tree of the insects for one or 

 more years. It should be done when the leaves are a third 

 grown, and will seldom need repeating the same season. 



VARIETIES. The variety of fine peaches cultivated abroad is 

 about fifty ; and half this number embraces all that are highly 

 esteemed, and generally cultivated in Europe. Innumerable 

 seedlings have been produced in this country, and some of them are 

 of the highest excellence. One or two of our nurserymen's cata- 

 logues enumerate over an hundred kinds, chiefly of native ori- 

 gin. Half of these are second rate sorts, or merely local varie- 

 ties of no superiour merit, and others are new names for old 

 sorts or seedlings newly produced, and differing in no essential 

 respects from old varieties. It is very desirable to reduce the 

 collection of peaches to reasonable limits, because, as this fruit 

 neither offers the same variety of flavour, or the extent of season 

 as the apple and pear, a moderate number of the choicest kinds, 

 ripening from the earliest to the latest is in every respect bet- 

 ter than a great variety, many of which must necessarily be 

 second rate. 



It is worthy of remark that most of our American varieties, of 

 the first quality, have proved second rate in England. This is 

 owing to the comparative want of sun and heat in their climate. 

 Indeed our finest late peaches will not ripen at all except under 

 glass, and the early varieties are much later than with us. On 

 the other hand many of the best European sorts are finer here 

 than in England, and we have lately endeavoured to introduce 

 all of the foreign sorts of high quality, both with the view of 

 improving our collection, and because we believe they are gene- 

 rally purer and healthier in constitution than many of our own 

 native kinds. 



In the description of peaches and nectarines the form, and out- 

 lines, of many kinds are so nearly similar that we are obliged to 

 resort to other characteristics to distinguish the varieties. The 

 two most natural classes into which the kinds of this fruit are 

 divided, are free-stones, and ding-stones, (melters and pavies, 

 of the English ;) the flesh of the former parting freely from the 

 stone, that of the latter adhering. 



Next to this the strongest natural distinction is found in the 

 haves of the peach. At the base of the leaves of certain kinds 

 are always found small glands, either round and regular, or ob- 

 long and irregular, while the leaves of certain other kinds have 

 no glands, but are more deeply cut or serrated on the margin. 

 These peculiarities of the foliage are constant, and they aid us 

 greatly in recognizing a variety by forming three distinct 

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