DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 187 



OLD MIXON FREE. 



Old Mixon Freestone, Old Mixon Clearstone. 



This superb old peach is the delight of all planters 

 worthy of the name. It is without fault, and blameless. 

 Not to admire it when gracefully supporting its enormous 

 burden of large, choice, rich, beautiful, melting and lus- 

 cious fruit in a bright, hot day in August, would be to 

 acknowledge one's self insensible to the charms of nature 

 and of grace. No Christian could be so callous. 



The tree is much inclined to spread into numerous long, 

 slender, tough, graceful branches, thus giving it a some- 

 what elm-shape ; and these branches hardly ever break, it 

 matters not what weight they bear. They are so tough, 

 so slender, and so well proportioned, that they will bend 

 like a bow under their rich load of precious fruit, until 

 the lower ones rest upon the ground, and thus form sup- 

 porting columns for those above them, when they present 

 a most charming sight a spectacle worthy the admiration 

 of a prince. We never get tired looking at one of these 

 noble old trees when thus clothed in its native grace and 

 dignity ; it supports the weight of many hundred fine, 

 ripe, red-cheeked peaches, which seem to hide their beau- 

 tiful blushes in a sheen of waving green. And in driving 

 through the orchard, day after day have we stopped in 

 the same spot to view and admire this beautiful and grate- 

 ful sight. There it stood, a single column, erect and firm, 

 supporting its hundred graceful arches, decked with rich- 

 est fruits, in bright and beautiful colors, shaded and soft- 

 ened by the green foliage, forming a hemisphere in out- 

 line, with base resting on the earth, and apex pointing to 

 the sky. So perfect was the picture, that we never could 

 bring ourselves to pluck a single peach ! No, indeed ; 

 that would have been profanation. It would have spoiled 

 the symmetry of the whole ; and we would as lief have 

 soiled a portrait, or marred a statue. Had we had the 



