Fruits 



267 



Photo by A*. P. Edwards, I.iUl champion 



MYSORE. A GIGANTIC MANGO TREE 



certain districts like Kent and the Vale of Evesham, but owing to late spring frosts which 

 frequently prevail the crop is very uncertain. The bulk of our supply comes from France 

 and Germany. 



The Apricot (Prunus Armeniaca) is supposed to be native to Armenia, but is now 

 naturalised in India, China, Egypt, and other parts of the world. The apricot was introduced 

 into cultivation in Italy about the beginning of the Christian era ; from Italy it is said to 

 have been introduced into England by Woolf, gardener to Henry VIII, in 1534. The apricot 

 thrives in California and other parts of the United States of America. In Australia it is 

 successfully grown, and quite recently most excellent apricots have reached this country from 

 Cape Colony. There are many varieties : one, the Musch-Musch, with sweet kernels, is grown 

 in the oases of Upper . Egypt, where the fruit is dried and forms an article of commerce. 

 Dried apricots are also prepared in northern India, and find their way across Tibet to Western 

 China, and are esteemed by Tibetans and Chinese alike. The apricot is somewhat extensively 

 grown in France, and from there we draw the bulk of our supply. 



The Peach (Prunus persica) is the most esteemed and luscious of fruits of the plum tribe. 

 It is, in all probability, a native of China, where it has been cultivated from a very remote 

 period. From China peach-stones were probably carried by the old trade route to Bokhara 

 and Persia. From Persia the peach was introduced into Asia Minor and Europe somewhere 

 about 300 B.C. 



There are three distinct forms of peach — clingstones, freestones, and nectarines — and numerous 

 varieties of each form. English-grown peaches are preferred in this country to those of any 

 other land, and in every garden of note greenhouses and walls are devoted expressly to the 

 culture of this delicious dessert fruit. The imports of peaches into this country, like those of 



