240 GARDEN PLANTS. PART II. 



round stone in the centre. I have not met with it in Bengal, 

 though it is down in the list of the Agri-Horticultural Society, 

 and is cultivated in the North-West Provinces as commonly as 

 the Saharutipore, which in flavour and quality it closely resembles, 

 though perhaps a little inferior. It has the merit of ripening 

 better, and at times when the other often fails to do so at all. 



3. The Calcutta Peach, of which the varieties mentioned 

 hardly differ but in name, is more of the ding-stone description, 

 and has much more of the melting quality of the Nectarine 

 than the two preceding. It is of a blood-red colour next the 

 stone > and has always a smack of bitterness ill its flavour more 

 than is quite agreeable. I may here state that I form my 

 opinion of this fruit not merely from such as is usually sold 

 in the bazar, but from the samples I have tasted of two or 

 three so-called varieties . in the Agri-Horticultural Society's 

 Garden; but more particularly from a basket of remarkably 

 fine Peaches presented to me by Mr. W. Stalkart from his 

 garden at Gooseree. 



I strongly suspect this Bengal Peach is little else than the 

 fruit as it is produced in its wild condition ; an opinion in soine 

 degree confirmed by the statement of Mr. Hampton, on pre- 

 senting some Peaches from his garden at Howrah generally 

 admired for their size and beauty, that they were the produce 

 of trees not grafted, but raised from seed.* 



4. Plants of the four several varieties, George IV., Cooledge's 

 Favourite, Lemon-cling, and Early Crawford, were brought in a 

 ship laden with ice from America several years ago, and pur- 

 chased by the Agri-Horticultural Society for their Garden * But 

 these have never yet borne fruit, blossoming uniformly in the 

 month of March, far too late to afford any hope of their being 

 productive. Whether as yet they have been subjected to any 

 judicious mode of treatment to promote earlier blossoming I 

 am unable to say. 



In this country the Peach makes such vigorous growth of 

 wood, that shortly after the close of the Kains some artificial 

 plan is necessary to be adopted to assist in ripening it. For this 

 purpose the earth should be removed from round the stem to 

 the distance of perhaps a foot and a half, and the roots laid bare, 

 and be allowed to continue so during five or six weeks. If the 

 * Bee ' Agri-Hort. Soc. Trans.' vol. viii. p. 390. 



