266 ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 
Flowers almost sessile, solitary, or twin, rising from the scaly buds earlier 
than the leaves.—Tree, deciduous, beneath the middle size, and not of long 
duration. Persia. 
The peach and the nectarine are by some botanists made distinct species ; 
but there can be no doubt of their being only varieties of one kind, which 
kind is itself nothing more than an improved or fleshy almond; the almond 
being to the peach and nectarine what the crab is to the apple, and the sloe to 
the plum. 
¥ 1. P. vutea‘ris Mill. The common Peach Tree. 
Identification. Mill. Dict., No. 1.; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 531.; Don’s Mill., 2. p. 483. 
Synonymes. Amy¥gdalus Persica Lin. &. 677. : Péche duveteuse, Fr. ; Pfirsche, Ger. | : 
ngravings. N, Du Ham.,1.2—8.; Nois. Jard. Fruit. Icon. ; the plate of this tree in Arb. Brit., 
Ist edit., vol. vi. ; and our fig. 427. 
427. Pérsica vulgaris, 
Spec. Char., §&c. Fruit clothed with velvety tomentum. A deciduous tree 
Persia. Height 20 ft. to 30 ft. Cultivated in 1562, or probably long before. 
Flowers rose-coloured ; March and April. Fruit red and yellow; ripe in 
September. 
Varieties. 
¥ P.v. 1, the freestune common Peach, Péche, Fr., has the flesh of the 
fruit parting from the shell of the nut (the stone). 
¥ P.v. 2, the clingstone common Peach, Pavie, Fr., has the flesh of the 
fruit aduering to the shell of the nut. 
¥ P. v. 3 flore pléno Hort.—Flowers double. 
& P, v. 4 alba Lindl.—Flowers white. A 
hardy ornamental shrub, with the habit 
of an almond. Its fruit has little 
merit. fra 
¥ P. v. 5 foliis variegatis Hort. — Leaves £3 
variegated. L 
2 P. 2. 6 compréssa Hort., the flat Peach 4N\) 
of China (Hort. Trans. iv. t. 19.; and A\Vy 
our jig. 428.), is chiefly remarkable for 
the form of its fruit, and for being J 
nearly evergreen in its leaves. In the 
Hort. Soc. Garden, against a wall, it 
keeps growing throughout the winter, 
when the weather is not too severe. 
428. P. vy. conpréssa. 
