82 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



years." Gerarde, the great English herbalist, 1597, does not mention them. 

 We find the nectarine first mentioned in America in 1 722 by Robert Beverly 

 in his History of Virginia, who, after discussing the culture of peaches, 

 nectarines and apricots, says (pages 259, 260): " Peaches and nectarines 

 I believe to be spontaneous, somewhere or other on that continent, for the 

 Indians have, and ever had greater variety, and finer sorts of them than the 

 English." 



The nectarine is one of the most interesting phenomena in horticultvire. 

 It is the classical example of bud-and seed-variation, furnishing more 

 instances of mutation, and these more instructive, than have yet come from 

 any other fruit. Darwin, with the magnificent exhaustiveness which 

 characterized his method, brought together in Animals and Plants under 

 Domestication ' a striking array of facts which leaves nothing to be added 

 as to the manner in which the peach and nectarine are reciprocally repro- 

 duced the one from the other. He shows by numerous examples: (i) 

 That nectarines may spring from peach-stones and peaches from nectarine- 



eider boughes being whitish, the younger branches very red, whereon grow narrow long greene leaves, so 

 like unto Peach leaves, that none can well distinguish them, unlesse it be in this, that they are somewhat 

 lesser: the blossomes are all reddish, as the Peach, but one of a differing fashion from all the other, as I 

 shall shew you by and by: the fruit that followeth is smaller, rounder, and smoother than Peaches, with- 

 out any cleft on the side, and without any douny cotton or freeze at all; and herein is like unto the outer 

 greene rinde of the Wallnut, whereof as I am perswaded it tooke the name, of a fast and firme meate, and 

 very delicate in taste, especially the best kindes, with a rugged stone within it, and a bitter kernell. 



" The Muske Nectorin, so called, because it being a kinde of the best red Nectorins, both smelleth 

 and eateth as if the fruit were steeped in Muske: some thinke that this and the next Romane Nectorin 

 are all one. 



" The Romane red Nectorin, or cluster Nectorin, hath a large or great purplish blossome, like unto 

 a Peach, reddish at the bottome on the outside, and greenish within: the fruit is of a fine red colour on the 

 outside, and groweth in clusters, two or three at a joynt together, of an excellent good taste. 



" The bastard red Nectorin hath a smaller or pincking blossome, more like threads then leaves, neither 

 so large nor open as the former, and yellowish within at the bottome: the fruit is red on the outside, and 

 groweth never but one at a joynt; it is a good fruit, but eateth a little more rawish then the other, even 

 when it is full ripe. 



" The yellow Nectorin is of two sorts, the one an excellent fruit, mellow, and of a \'ery good rellish; 

 the other hard, and no way comparable to it. 



" The greene Nectorin, great and small; for such I have scene abiding constant, although both planted 

 in one ground: they are both of one goodnesse, and accounted with most to be the best rellished Nectorin 

 of all others. 



" The white Nectorin is said to bee differing from the other, in that it will bee more white on the out- 

 side when it is ripe, then either the yellow or greene: but I have not yet scene it. 



The Use of Nectorins. 

 " The fruit is more firme then the Peach, and more delectable in taste; and is therefore of more 

 esteeme, and that worthily." 



' Darwin Ans. and Pis. Domesl. 2nd Ed. 1:337-365. 1893. 



