HOOK I. 



APRICOT. 



719 



Cling-stoncs arranged in the order qf their ripening. 



Late Newinpton (Lang.P.t.W.For. 2.); 

 red and yellow color; ripens in the 

 middle of September; excellent rich 

 juice 



Brugnon, Italian (Lang. P. t. 29. 

 For. 5.); deep-red and pale-y 

 color; ripens the beginning of 

 tember; rich flavor 



Sep- 



Red Roman, Brugnor. Musqu(5 (Duh. 

 n. 26. For. G.) ; large size; dark-red 

 and yellow color ; ripens in Septem- 

 ber ; replete with rich juice 



Golden (Lang. p. t. 29. Fur. 9.) ; medium 

 size ; soft red and yellow color ; ripens 

 in the beginning of October; poignant 

 rich flavor 



Early Pavie (For. 57.) 



Late Genoa (For. 57.) . 



Early Newington (For. 57.); above 

 medium size ; ripens the end of Au- 

 gust ; deep-red color ; pulp super-ex- 

 cellent; and, according to Miller, one 

 of the best flavored of nectarines, or of 

 any known fruit in the world 



Roger's seedling. (For. 77.) 



4519. Selection of sorts. Forsyth recommends for a small garden 



Fairchild's early | Elruge | Scarlet | Newington | Red Roman | Temple's. 



4520. Those in the Dalkeith garden are as follows ; such as are marked (-JT.) being 

 planted against a hot-wall : 



(H.) Red Roman I (H.) Elruge I (H.) Temple I Fairchild's I (H.) Clermont 



(H.) Dutilly's I (H.)Brugnon | \H.) Murry | (H.) Scarlet 1 V 



4521. Insects. " On account of the smoothness of the skin of the nectarine," For- 

 syth says, " it suffers much more from the wood-louse (Oniscus asettus\ ear- wigs, &c. 

 than the peach ; it will, therefore, be necessary to hang up a greater number of bundles 

 of bean-stalks about these than about any other fruit-trees. Wasps are also very destruc- 

 tive to nectarines, and the trees are very liable to be infested with the red spider." 



Culture, &c. This is in all respects the same as the peach. 



SUBSECT. 3. Apricot. Prunus Armeniaca, L. ; Armeniaca Vulgaris, P. S. (Lam. III. 

 t. 431.) /cos. Di-Pentag. L. and Rosaceee, J. Mains Armeniaca of the Ancients. 

 Abricot, Fr. ; Abricosenbaum, Ger. ; and Albicocco, Ital. 



4522. The apricot is a low tree, of rather crooked growth, with broad roundish- 

 pointed leaves, glandular, serrated, and the petiole commonly tinged with red. Linnaeus 

 remarks, that the vernant leaves are convoluted, that is, not folded flat together, like 

 those of the cherry, but rolling upwards, more or less. The leaves of many apricot-trees 

 have a disposition to this at all times. The flowers are sessile, of a white color, tinged 

 with dusky-red ; fruit round, yellow within and without, firmer than plums and most 

 peaches, enclosing a smooth compressed stone, like that of the plum. The flowers ap- 

 pear in April, on the shoots of the preceding year, and on' spurs of two or more years' 

 growth, and the fruit ripens in September. From its trivial name, it is generally sup- 

 posed to have originated in Armenia, but Regnier and Sickler assign it a parallel be- 

 tween the Niger and the Atlas ; and Pallas states it to be a native of the whole of the 

 Caucasus, the mountains there, to the top, being covered with it. Thunberg describes 

 it as a very large, spreading, branchy tree in Japan. Grossier says that it covers the bar- 

 ren mountains to the west of Pekin, that the Chinese have a great many varieties of the 

 tree, double-blossomed, which they plant on little mounts for ornament, and dwarfs in 

 pots for their apartments. It appears from Turner's Herbal, that the apricot was culti- 

 vated here in 1562 ; and in Hakluyt's Remembrancer, 1582, it is affirmed, that the apricot 

 was procured out of Italy by Wolfe, a French priest, gardener to Henry VIII. The 

 fruit seems to have been known in Italy in the time of Dioscorides, under the name of 

 Preecocin, probably, as Regnier supposes, from the Arabic, Berkoch ; whence the Tuscan, 

 Bacoche or Albicocco ; and the English, Apricock : or, as Professor Martyn observes, 

 a tree, when first introduced, might have been called a prcecox, or early fruit ; and gar- 

 deners taking the article a for the first syllable of the word, might easily have corrupted 

 it to apricocks. The orthography seerns to have been finally changed to apricot about the 

 end of the last century; as Justice, in 1764, writes apricock ; and Kyle, of Moredun 

 in 1782, apricot. 



4523. Use. The fruit is used in a raw state at the dessert, and is esteemed next to the 

 peach ; it is also made into marmalades, jellies, and preserved. Grossier says, that lo- 

 zenges are made by the Chinese, from the clarified juice, which, dissolved in water, yield 

 a cool refreshing beverage : oil may be extracted from the nut, and the young shoots 

 yield a fine golden cinnamon-color to wool. 



4524. Varieties. Parkinson, in 1629, enumerates six ; Rea, 1720, seven; the Lux- 

 emburg catalogue, in 1800, fifteen ; and the British catalogues enumerate about the same 

 number. 



