502 THE NECTARINE. 



With this easy system of pruning, good crops are readily 

 obtained, wherever the curculio is not very prevalent. 



Where this insect abounds, we must recommend the steady 

 annual application of salt, spread over the surface of the ground, 

 the surface being first made hard and firm. This should be 

 done when the punctured fruit commences to drop. (See the 

 Plum for further remarks on this insect.) And we would, as a 

 preventive to the attacks of the insect, recommend rags, dipped 

 in coal tar,* to be hung in the branches for two or three weeks 

 after the fruit is formed. The coal tar should be renewed oc- 

 casionally, as soon as it loses its powerful smell. 



The culture of the nectarine is, in all respects, precisely 

 similar to that of the peach, and its habits are also completely 

 the same. It is longer lived, and hardier, when budded on the 

 plum, but still the nurserymen here usually work it on the 

 peach stock. 



Class I. Freestone Nectarines. (Peches lisses, Fr.) 



[The same characters are used as in describing peaches, for which the 

 reader is referred to that part]. 



1. BOSTON. Thomp. 



Lewis> I 



Perkins' Seedling, j 



This American seedling is the largest and most beautiful of 

 all nectarines. It was raised from a peach stone by Mr. T. 

 Lewis of Boston. The original tree was, when full of fruit, 

 destroyed by boys, but the sort had been preserved by that 

 most skilful cultivator, S. G. Perkins, Esq., and soon in his 

 hands attracted attention by the uncommon beauty of its fruit. 

 In 1821, this gentleman transmitted trees of this variety to the 

 London Horticultural Society, of which he is a corresponding 

 member, together with a very accurate drawing of the fruit 

 grown by him, measuring eight and a half inches round, and 

 " so beautiful, that its correctness was doubted abroad," until 

 Mr. Knight showed specimens grown there in 1823. The fruit, 

 though not of high flavour, is excellent, the tree very hardy and 

 productive, and one of the best for general standard culture. 

 Mr. Perkins' seedling, raised from the original Lewis tree, is 

 quite identical, and we adopt the name of " Boston " nectarine, 

 as the standard one. Three trees of this sort covering fifty- 

 five feet of wall at his place at Brookline, are now very beau, 

 tiful objects. [See Broomfield Nectarine.] 



* To be had very cheap at the city gas work*. 



