l86 THE AMERICAN PEACH ORCHARD 



NECTARINE 



The nectarines should always be considered with 

 the peaches because they are very closely related. 

 In fact, nectarines not infrequently grow on the same 

 trees with peaches. Several authentic cases have 

 been known where nectarines have originated 

 directly by bud variation upon the branches of 

 peach trees. Yet in some botanies the nectarine has 

 been given a separate scientific name, being held to 

 be a separate species. Such arrangement is of 

 doubtful validity. The nectarine c(pes not come suf- 

 ficiently true from seed to maintain the definite and 

 fixed characters which should be attributed to a sep- 

 arate species. About the only recognized distinc- 

 tion between the nectarine and the peach is that the 

 former has a perfectly smooth skin like the plum, 

 whereas all varieties of peaches have some sort of 

 tomentum, or "fuzz," on the surface of the fruit. 



NEAR RELATIVES 



The nearest botanical relatives of the peach are 

 the small dwarf Chinese species, Prunus davidii, 

 which is rarely grown as an ornamental in this 

 country, but which has no apparent horticultural 

 importance, and the Simon plum, Prunus simonii, 

 which has been planted to some extent in this coun- 

 try as a commercial plum, and which has been used 

 extensively, especially in California, in hybridizing 

 with Japanese plums. 



CLASSIFICATION OF PEACHES 



Systematic study of varieties of peaches in this 

 country is of recent origin. Apparently, Prof. R. H. 



