Chap. X, 



PEACH AND NECTARINE. 



337 



ate^ 



nearly unanimous that the peach has never been found wild. It was intro- 

 duced from Persia into Europe a little before the Christian era, and at this 

 period few varieties existed. Alph. De Candolle/ 2 from the fact of the peach 

 not having spread from Persia at an earlier period, and from its not having 



Fig. 42.— Peach and Almond Stones, of natural size, viewed edgeways, l. Common English Peach. 

 2. Double, crimson-flowered, Chinese Peach. 3. Chinese Honey Peach. 4. English Almond. 

 5. Barcelona Almond. 6. Malaga Almond. 1. Soft-shelled French Almond. 8. Smyrna Almond. 



• 



id* 



■ 1 " 



Jul* 



pure Sanscrit or Hebrew names, believes that it is not an aboriginal of 

 Western Asia, but came from the terra incognita of China. The suppo- 

 sition, however, that the peach is a modified almond which acquired its 

 present character at a comparatively late period, would, I presume, account 

 for these facts ; on the same principle that the nectarine, the offspring of 

 the peach, has few native names, and became known in Europe at a still 

 later period. 



' Geograph. Bot.,' p. 882. 



VOL. I. 



