588 THE PEACH. 



Although these sorts can be reduced and kept in pyramidal 

 shape, they are not so ^Yell fitted for it, and will never bear so 

 -well, if they bear at all. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



THE PEACH. 



Persica vulgaris, Dec. ; Bosacece of botanists. 



Fechej; of the French ; Fjirschbaum^ German ; Fersickkeboom, Dutch ; Per 



ska, Itahan ; and El Melocoton, Spanish. 



The peach tree is a native of Persia and China, and was 

 brought from the former country to Italy by the Romans in the 

 time of the Emperor Claudius. It was considerably cultivated 

 in Britain as early as the year 1550, and was introduced to this 

 country by the early settlers somewhere about 1G80. From 

 Persia, its native country, its name in all languages — Persico — 

 Pecher — peach — has evidently been derived. 



The peach is a rather small fruit tree, with narrow, smooth, 

 serrated leaves, and pink blossoms. It is more tender and of 

 shorter duration than most other of the fruits usually grown in 

 temperate climates. It is never raised in England, and not 

 generally in France, without the aid of walls. Even at Mon- 

 treuil, near Paris, a village whose whole population is mainly 

 employed in cultivating the peach for market, it is grown entirely 

 upon whitewashed walls. China and the United States are, 

 therefore, the only temperate countries where the peach and the 

 apple both attain their highest perfection in the open orchard. 

 The peaches of Pekin are celebrated as being the finest in the 

 world, and of double the usual size.* 



It is a curious fact in the history of the peach, that with its 

 delicious flavour were once coupled, in the East, certain notions 

 of its poisonous qualities. This idea seems vaguely to have 

 accompanied it into Europe, for Pliny mentions that it was sup- 

 posed that the king of Persia had sent them into Egypt to poison 

 the inhabitants, with whom he was then at war. As the peach 

 and the almond are closely related, it has been conjectured by 

 Mr. Knight that the poisonous peaches referred to were swollen 

 almonds, which contain a considerable quantity of prussic acid. 

 But it is also worth remarking that the peach tree seems to hold 



* The Horticultural world, since our intercourse has been put upon a 

 more favourable footing with the " Celestial Empire," are looking with great 

 eagerness to the introduction of many valuable plants and trees, the Chi- 

 nese being the most curious and skilful of merely practical gardeners. 



