THE PEACH. 



605 



esteemed and generally cultivated in Europe. Innumerable 

 seedlings have been produced in this country, and some of them 

 are of the highest excellence. One or two of our nurserymen's 

 catalogues enumerate over a hundred kinds, chiefly of native 

 origin. Half of these are second rate sorts, or merely local va- 

 rieties of no superior merit, and others are new names for old 

 sorts or seedlings newly produced, and differing in no essential 

 respects from old varieties. It is very desirable to reduce the 

 collection of peaches to reasonable limits, because, as this fruit 

 neither offers the same variety of flavour nor the extent of season 

 as the apple and pear, a moderate number of the choicest kinds, 

 ripening from the earliest to the latest, is in every respect bet- 

 ter than a great variety, many of which must necessarily be 

 second rate. 



It is worthy of remark that most of our American varieties, ot 

 the first quality, have proved second rate in England. This is 

 owing to the comparative want of sun and heat in their cli- 

 mate. Indeed our finest late peaches will not ripen at all ex- 

 cept under glass, and the early varieties are much later than 

 with us. On the other hand, many of the best European sorts 

 are finer here than in England, and we have lately endeavoured 

 to introduce all of the foreign sorts of high quality, both with 

 the view of improving our collection, and because we believe 



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Fig. 211. Characters in the leaves of peaches. 



