FRUIT-GARDENING. 63 



APRICOT. 



ABRICOTIER. Prunus Armeniaca. 



The Margaret Apple, the pride of our clime, 

 "With the Apricot, Raspberry, true to their time, 

 Are pleasant companions, as summer e'er met, 

 Though others, as welcome, are coming on yet. 



The fruit of the Apricot is next in esteem to the Peach ; and 

 as it ripens three or four weeks earlier, should be more gene- 

 rally cultivated. The flowers appear in April, on the shoots 

 of the preceding year, and on spurs of two or more years' 

 growth ; and the fruit ripens in July and August. The Lon- 

 don Horticultural Society's catalogue describes fifty-four sorts ; 

 and Messrs. Prince have eighteen in their catalogue. Besides 

 these, is the Peach Apricot, a large fruit, supposed to be a 

 hybrid between a Peach and an Apricot. 



Our enterprising fellow- citizen, Mr. William Shaw, has suc- 

 ceeded for many years in maturing large quantities of this 

 excellent fruit on standards ; but they ripen best when trained 

 against close fences. In England, some of the varieties are 

 cultivated as standards and espaliers; but they seldom bear 

 much fruit under ten or twelve years, and then the fruit is 

 abundant and of the finest flavor. They are commonly cul- 

 tivated as wall trees, in an east or west aspect ; for if they are 

 planted to face the south, the great heat causes them to be 

 mealy before they are eatable. New varieties are procured 

 from seed, as in the Peach, and approved sorts are perpetuated 

 by budding on plum-stocks. 



The varieties of the Apricot, in general, bear chiefly upon 

 the young shoots of last year, and casually upon small spurs 

 rising on the two or three-years-old fruit branches. The Moor- 

 park bears chiefly on the last year's shoots, and on close spurs 

 formed on the two-year-old wood. The bearing-shoots emit 

 the blossom-buds immediately from the eyes along the sides, 

 and the buds have a round and swelling appearance. 



