342 



FRUFTS. 



Chap. x. 



nectarines would give birth by bud-variation or by seed to peaches 

 oftener than peaches to nectarines ; but this is by no means the case. 



Two explanations have been suggested to account for these conversions. 

 First, that the parent-trees have been in every case hybrids 53 between the 

 peach and nectarine, and have reverted by bud- variation or by seed to one 

 of their pure parent-forms. This view in itself is not very improbable ; for 

 the Mountaineer peach, which was raised by Knight from the red nutmeg 

 peach by pollen of the violette hative nectarine, 54 produces peaches, but 

 these are said sometimes to partake of the smoothness and flavour of the 

 nectarine. But let it be observed that in the previous list no less than six 

 well-known varieties and several other unnamed varieties of the peach 

 have once suddenly produced perfect nectarines by bud-variation ; and it 

 would be an extremely rash supposition that all these varieties of the 

 peach, which have been cultivated for years in many districts, and which 

 show not a vestige of a mixed parentage, are, nevertheless, hybrids. A 

 second explanation is, that the fruit of the peach has been directly affected 

 by the pollen of the nectarine : although this certainly is possible, it cannot 

 here apply ; for we have not a shadow of evidence that a branch which 

 has borne fruit directly affected by foreign pollen is so profoundly modified 

 as afterwards to produce buds which continue to yield fruit of the new and 

 modified form. Now it is known that when a bud on a peach-tree has 

 once borne a nectarine the same branch has in several instances gone on 

 during successive years producing nectarines. The Carclew nectarine, on 

 the other hand, first produced half-and-half fruit, and subsequently pure 

 peaches. Hence we may confidently accept the common view that the 

 nectarine is a variety of the peach, which may be produced either by bud- 

 variation or from seed. In the following chapter many analogous cases 

 of bud- variation will be given. 



The varieties of the peach and nectarine run in parallel lines. In both 

 classes the kinds differ from each other in the flesh of the fruit being 

 white, red, or yellow; in being clingstones or freestones; in the flowers 

 being large or small, with certain other characteristic differences ; and in 

 the leaves being serrated without glands, or crenated and furnished with 

 globose or reniform glands. 55 We can hardly account for this parallelism 

 by supposing that each variety of the nectarine is descended from a corre- 

 sponding variety of the peach ; for though our nectarines are certainly 

 the descendants of several kinds of peaches, yet a large number are the 

 descendants of other nectarines, and they vary so much when thus repro- 

 duced that we can scarcely admit the above explanation. 



The varieties of the peach have largely increased in number since the 

 Christian era, when from two to five varieties alone were known ; 56 and 

 the nectarine was unknown. At the present time, besides many varieties 

 said to exist in China, Downing describes in the United States seventy-nine 



53 Alph. De Candolle, ' Geograph. 

 Bot.,' p. 886. 



54 Thompson, in Loudon's ' Encyclop. 

 of Gardening,' p. 911. 



65 ' Catalogue of Fruit in Garden of 



Hort. Soc.,' 1842, p. 105. 



56 Dr. A. Targioni-Tozzetti, ' Journal 

 Hort. Soc,,' vol. ix. p. 167. Alph. de 

 Candolle, 'Geograph. Bot.,' p. 885. 



