NECTARINES. 311 



to distinguish the middle from the small-sized flowers ; 

 the former are larger in all their parts, but in other 

 respects there is no difference between them ; and in 

 maintaining the division, I have conformed more to the 

 authority of Lelieur than to my own opinion. 



We now come to the fruit, with regard to which na- 

 ture has furnished two distinct characters in the external 

 appearance, as well as two in the internal structure. The 

 first of these depends on the downiness or smoothness of 

 the skin ; the former being true Peaches, the latter our 

 Nectarines, known in France only as JPeches lisses, or 

 smooth-skinned Peaches. Each of these are divisible, 

 from their internal structure, into the Pavies or Cling- 

 stones, and the Melting kinds ; the former having firm 

 flesh adhering so closely to the stone as to be perfectly 

 inseparable from it ; the latter having soft dissolving 

 flesh separating readily from the stone, and leaving a few 

 detached pieces of the flesh only behind. As the mature 

 fruit in vegetable economy appears to be the last stage 

 of nature in her progress towards reproduction, I have 

 adopted it as the most natural on which to found my 

 subdivisions and sections. 



Accordingly, the classes of Peaches and Nectarines 

 may, by the examination of the leaves, be ascertained in 

 the first year the plant has been raised ; the divisions, 

 from the flowers, in the spring following ; and the sub- 

 dirisions and sections, founding the former on the 

 character of the skins, the latter on the qualities of the 

 flesh, in the succeeding summer or autumn ; and whether 

 the number to be submitted to examination be great or 

 small, the arrangement may be effected with equal 

 facility and precision. 



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