THE NECTARINE. 565 



The RED MULBERRY (Morus rubra, L.) is a native species, more or 

 less common in oar woods, with large, rough, heart-shaped or lobed 

 leaves. The fruit is about an inch long, and very pleasant and palatable, 

 though much inferior to the Black English. It bears transplanting 

 well, or is easily raised from seed, and may, undoubtedly, be greatly im- 

 proved by repeated reproduction in this way. As it forms a large orna- 

 mental tree, with a fine spreading head, forty feet high, it is well deserv- 

 ing a place on the lawn, or near the house, in ornamental plantations. 



There are many varieties of the White Mulberry, commonly cultivated 

 for silk, but which produce fruit of no value. 



The best soil for the Mulberry is a rich, deep, sandy loam. The tree 

 requires little or no pruning, and is of very easy culture. It is usually 

 propagated by cuttings, three feet long, planted in the spring, half their 

 depth in the ground ; cuttings made of pieces of the roots will also send 

 up shoots and become plants. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



THE NECTARINE. 



Persica vulgaris (v.) Lcevis, Dec. JRosacece, of Botanists. 



THE Nectarine is only a variety of the peach with a smooth skin 

 (Peche lisse, or Jlrugnon, of the French). In its growth, habit, and 

 general appearance, it is impossible to distinguish it from the peach- 

 tree. The fruit, however, is rather smaller, perfectly smooth, without 

 down, and is one of the most wax-like and exquisite of all productions 

 for the dessert. In flavor it is perhaps scarcely so rich as the finest 

 peach, but it has more piquancy, partaking of the noyau or peach-leaf 

 flavor. 



The Nectarine is known in Northern India, where it is called moondla 

 aroo (smooth peach). It appears to be only a distinct, accidental variety 

 of the peach, and this is rendered quite certain since there are several 

 well-known examples on record of both peaches and nectarines having 

 been produced on the same branch thus showing a disposition to re- 

 turn to the natural form. Nectarines, however, usually produce necta- 

 rines again on sowing the seeds ; but they also occasionally produce 

 peaches. The Boston Nectarine originated from a peach-stone. 



The Nectarine appears a little more shy of bearing in this country 

 than the peach, but this arises almost always from the destruction of 

 the crop of fruit by the curculio, the destroyer of all smooth-skinned 

 stone fruit in sandy soils. It is quite hardy here wherever the peach 

 will thrive, though it will not generally bear large and fine fruit, unless 

 the branches are shortened-in annually, as we have fully directed for the 

 peach-tree. 



With this easy system of pruning, good crops are readily obtained 

 wherever the curculio is not very prevalent. 



The culture of the Nectarine is in all respects precisely similar to 

 that of the peach, and its habits are also completely the same. 



