PEACH STATISTICS. 37 



supposed, on good grounds, to be the " Late 

 Admirable " of the present day, and the " Peche 

 Koyale " of the French. (Duliamel) The " Late 

 Admirable" 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 bestowed on or required by the peach is 

 almost nothing, and beyond the 50th degree it 

 declines to bear at all. Thus wrote M . Noi- 

 sette ; an excellent authority, but, then, he 

 knew nothing of Orchard-houses. How few 

 Frenchmen of the present 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 frequently 

 visited England, and knows all our best nursery 

 gardens too. Another, and certainly a clever 

 authority, residing at Brussels, considers our 

 system of pear culture as (( disastrous," and 



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