272 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



into two parts. Secondly, in peach a thick, fleshy, succulent 

 covering. The mode of vegetation, forms of leaves and flowers, 

 &c., are hardly distinguishable, so little striking are these differ- 

 ences. We know that the more or less juicy flesh of those fruits 

 does not constitute anything more than a relative difference. 

 Mons Koch, says that he has seen in the East, and •even in the 

 Banat, grapes, which wiien ripe, had not the least flesh. We all 

 know how different the wild pears are from those of our gardens. 

 The pear trees of South Eastern Russia, and especially the plains 

 of Armenia, produce small pears, more rounded and less acrid 

 than our wild pears. They are extraordinarily hard, and almost 

 absolutely without flesh. 



The Pyrus Eloeagrifolia, of Pallas; the Sinaica, of'Thouin; the 

 Amygdaliformis of Villars; the Pyranus of Eafinesque. (Cuneifo- 

 lia, of Gussone,) and perhaps also the Pyrus Salvifolia, of Decan- 

 dolle, which are incontestably the original sources of our culti- 

 vated pears, and are so distinguished from these rich fruits by 

 their native dryness, (secheresse.) 



To this day no man has ever found a wild peach. Even in 

 China, it exists only as cultivated. In the Himalaya mountain 

 region, it has simply become \vild, as the loss of its name there 

 proves. It seems therefore probable, that succulent peaches are 

 products of culture, and not merely almonds whose mesocarp, 

 (flesh) has become fleshy. Whenever we meet with a peach run 

 wild, we find it's fruit nearly dry — such as those observed by 

 Prof. Pallas in the north of the Caucasus, and reciprocally we 

 have almonds covered with flesh ! Duhamel, long ago, marked 

 one of which Poiteaux & Turpin have given us a drawing in their 

 new treatise on fruit trees — plate 13, of volume 1. This fruit is 

 large enough, and occasionally one of them recalls the taste of 

 ordinary peaches, while in other years it is absolutely worth noth- 

 ing. Its yellow flesh becomes of a violet color next to the nut, 

 •which is more deeply furrowed than the almond and less than in 

 the peach. In wet and warm seasons, it opens in two halves like 

 the common almond — the skin of the same color on the flesh — 

 the nut of mild flavor and taste. Duhamel says, its blossom is 

 white ; but Porteaux & Turpin, say it is of a flesh color. The 



