182 lawson's history 



bearing its fruit to admiration. I want to be sat- 

 isfied about one sort of this fruit, which thd In- 

 dians claim as their own, and affirm they had 

 it growing amongst them before any Europeans 

 came to America. The fruit I will describe as ex- 

 actly as I can. The tree grows very large, most 

 commonly as big as a handsome apple tree ; the 

 flowers are of a redish, murrey color, the fruit is 

 rather more downy than the yellow peach, and 

 commonly very large and soft, being very full of 

 juice. They part freely from the stone, and 

 the stone is much thicker than all the other peach 

 stones we have, which seems to me that it is a 

 spontaneous fruit of America ; yet in those parts 

 of America that we inhabit, I never could hear 

 that any peach trees were ever found growing in 

 the woods ; neither have the foreign Indians, that 

 live remote from the English, any other sort. And 

 those living amongst us have a hundred of this 

 sort for one other. They are a hardy ^mit, and 

 are seldom damaged by the north-east blast, as 

 others are. Of this sort we make vinegar ; where- 

 fore we call them vinegar peaches, and sometimes 

 Indian peaches. 



This tree grows to a vast bigness, exceeding 

 most apple trees. They bear well, though some- 

 times an early spring comes on in February, and 

 perhaps when the tree is fully blown, the cloudy, 

 north-east winds, which attend the end of that 

 month, or the beginning of March, destro}^ most 

 of the fruit. The bigest apricot tree I ever saw, 



