24 CORDON TRAINING. 



about this exotic. Thus we find Columella making the fun- 

 niest mistakes ; and Pliny (the Rivers of his day) setting him 

 right, and re-establishing the fruit into popular favor. Never- 

 theless, even Pliny only knew of five varieties. By the 16th 

 century some forty kinds were known and described ; and, of 

 these, the oldest and that most carefully depicted is the 

 "Lucca peach," which is supposed, on good grounds, to be 

 the "Late Admirable" of the present day, and the " Peche 

 Royale " of the French. {Duhamel.} The " Late Admira- 

 ble " is not the same as " Bourdine " (which ripens later), as 

 others assert. But this only shows how little is really known 

 about the fruit common in the middle ages. 



In the tropics the peach succeeds pretty well, that is, it 

 grows finely ; but there is little fruit on it. Vegetation is too 

 continual for the fruit-buds to form. This is curious enough, 

 as it is just the case, from excess of humidity, in our climate. 

 Between the 30th and 43rd degrees of latitude, the care be- 

 stowed on or required by the peach is almost nothing, and 

 beyond the 50th degree it declines to bear at all. Thus wrote 

 M. Noisette ; an excellent authority, — but, then, he knew 

 notliing of orchard-houses. How few Frenchmen of the pres- 

 ent day really believe in our successful culture of fruit at all, 

 I leave to continental travellers to declare. " They grow, it 

 is true," said one of the learned men at Angers to me, " they 

 grow, as my friend (quoting a well-known name) declared to 

 us as we walked the streets of London together, but they 

 never ripen." The eminent cultivator referred to had fre- 

 quently visited England, and knows all our best nursery gar- 

 dens too. Another, and certainly a clever authority, residing 

 at Brussels, considers our system of pear culture as " disas- 

 trous," and ascribes it to ignorance of common principles ; 

 the trees round London, though numerous, being quite "un- 

 productive." 



The transition from this amusing prejudice en the part of 

 our continental friends, to the opinions of tlie Chinese respect- 

 ing peaches, is not so abrupt as may appear at first sight. 

 The ruddy and pointed peaches are considered, in China, to 



