¢ 
THE PEACH. 605 
esteemed and generally cultivated in Europe. Innumerable 
seedlings have been produced in this country, and some of them 
are of the highest excellence. .One or two of our nurserymen’s 
catalogues enumerate over a hundred kinds, chiefly of native 
origin. Half of these are second rate sorts, or merely local va- 
rietics of no superior merit, and others are new names for old 
sorts or seedlings newly produced, and differing in no essential 
respects from old varieties. It is very desirable to reduce the 
collection of peaches to reasonable limits, because, as this fruit 
neither offers the same variety of flavour nor the extent of season 
as the apple and pear, a moderate number of the choicest kinds, 
ripening from the earliest to the latest, is in every respect bet- 
ter than a great variety, many of which must necessarily be 
second rate. 
It is worthy of remark that most of our American varieties, of 
the first quality, have proved second rate in England. This is 
owing to the comparative want of sun and heat in their cli- 
mate. Indeed our finest late peaches will not ripen at all ex- 
cept under glass, and the early varieties are much later than 
with us. On the other hand, many of the best European sorts 
are finer here than in England, and we have lately endeavoured 
to introduce all of the foreign sorts of high quality, both with 
the view of improving our collection, and because we believe 
Fig. 211.’ Characters in the leaues of peaches, 
