GENERAL REVIEW. 



spicuous of rosaceous flowering plants may be mentioned 

 shrubby and herbaceous Spiraeas, double-blossomed Plums, 

 Cherries, Peaches, Almonds, &c., rosy-white and scarlet Ja- 

 panese Pyrus, scarlet-fruited or flowering Hawthorns (Cra- 

 tcEgus), orange-berried Pyracantha, Cotoneaster, and Pernettyas, 

 and some very attractive single and double flowered forms of 

 Rubus, Medlars, and Amelanchiers. (See Hogg's ' Fruit 

 Manual' (4th ed.), 1875, f r interesting historical and other 

 details of rosaceous fruits, &c.) 



Amygdalus. A well-known and useful genus of Roseworts, 

 containing the Peach, Nectarine, and Almond. According to 

 some authors, Morocco and Barbary are the native countries of 

 the Almond ; while the Peach is generally supposed to be Per- 

 sian, although M. de Candolle, in his ' Ge'ographie Botanique,' 

 assumes China to be the country whence this fruit originated, 

 but the fact of these plants having been cultivated for ages 

 renders it extremely difficult to trace their original habitats. 

 The Almond resembles the Peach in habit, but has a leathery 

 coat to its fruit, the stone or kernel being the part eaten. The 

 Peach has a soft fleshy covering to the stone ; and the object 

 here sought after by the cultivator is to produce large and pro- 

 lific varieties, with succulent delicately-flavoured pulp and small 

 stones. The Nectarine is a variety of Peach, having a smooth 

 skin. The near relationship of Peaches, Nectarines, and Al- 

 monds is well known to horticulturists, who employ the Almond 

 as a stock for cultivated varieties. Nectarines have also been 

 borne on the same branch along with Peaches, and Mr Knight 

 proved that they would interbreed readily. He crossed an 

 Almond flower with pollen from a Peach, and an Almond fruit 

 was produced, from the stone of which he raised a tree which 

 bore Peaches better than some seedlings raised from Peach- 

 stones. Mr Rivers has also raised some valuable varieties of 

 Nectarines from Peach-stones, and vice versa. A list of seedling 

 varieties of modern date, with their parentage when known, is 

 here given. Careful cross-fertilisation between two good varie- 

 ties is the surest way of obtaining new forms ; but if a large 

 quantity of stones is planted, new forms of merit are not un- 

 frequently produced without artificial fertilisation. Mr Rivers 

 is of opinion that the Noblesse and some others of our best 

 Peaches originated from the old White Nectarine. That com- 

 paratively new and fine Peach Prince of Wales was raised by 

 Mr Rivers from a stone of the Pitmaston Orange Nectarine ; 

 while of ten seedlings raised by him from stones of this same 

 Peach Prince of Wales, five turned out to be Peaches and five 

 Nectarines three of the latter being orange and two white 



