138 Retrograde Varieties 



ent races of the peach. As early as the begin- 

 ning of the past century, Gallesio described no 

 less than eight subvarieties of nectarines, each 

 related to a definite race of peach. Most of 

 them reproduce themselves truly from seed, as 

 is well known in this country concerning the 

 clingstones, freestones and some other types. 

 Nectarines have often varied, giving rise to new 

 sorts, as in the case of the white nectarine and 

 many others differing greatly in appearance 

 and flavor. On the other hand it is to be re- 

 marked, that the trees do not differ in other re- 

 spects and cannot be distinguished while young, 

 the varietal mark being limited to the loss of 

 the down on the fruit. Peaches have been 

 known to produce nectarines, and nectarines to 

 yield true peaches. Here we have another in- 

 stance of positive and negative steps with refer- 

 ence to the same character, but I cannot with- 

 hold an expression of some doubt as to the possi- 

 bility of crossing and subsequently splitting up 

 of the hybrids as a more probable explanation 

 of at least some of the cases quoted by various 

 writers. 



Smooth or glabrous varieties often occur, and 

 some of them have already been cited as in- 

 stances of the multiplication of varietal names. 

 Positive aberrations are rather rare, and are 

 mostly restricted to a greater density of the 



