Book J. 



STONE-FRUITS. 



711 



SuBSECT. 5. Tme-Service. — - Sorbus Domestica, Li. {Pyrus Domeslica, Eng. BoU 

 350.) Icosan. Di-Pentag. L. and Rosacece, J. Ali^der, Fr. ; Elsbeerbaum, Ger. ; and 

 Loto, or Bagolaro, Ital. {fig- 488.) 



4473. The true-service-tree is of the middle size, not unlike the mountain-ash, of a very 

 low growth, and not flowering till it arrives at a very great age. The leaves are com- 

 pound, alternate, with ovate or oval leaflets. The flowers are produced on terminating 

 panicles issuing from spurs of two or more years' growth ; the petals are cream-colored ; 

 the fruit, according to Gaertner, is a pome, pear-shaped, reddish, and spotted, extremely 

 austere, and not eatable till it is quite mellowed by frost or time, when it becomes 

 brown and very soft. It flowers in May, and the fruit ripens in November ; the tree, 

 according to Krocker, does not come into full bearing before it is sixty years old. It 

 is a native of the warmer parts of Europe, and has 

 also been found wild in Cornwall, Worcestershire, 

 and Hertfordshire, from whence the fruit is brought 

 to London in autumn in large quantities. Miller 

 says, ' ' There was one tree in the garden of John 

 Tradescant, of South Lainbeth, near forty feet high, 

 which produced a great quantity of fruit annually, 

 shaped like pears. Some trees of middling growth, 

 in the garden of Henry Marsh, Esq. at Hammer- 

 smith, produced fruit of the apple-shape. From 

 these many trees were raised in the nurseries near 

 London, but the fruit was small compared with that 

 of Tradescant." Great numbers of large service- 

 trees grow wild about Aubigny in France ; from 

 the seeds of which one of the dukes of Richmond 

 raised a great many trees at Goodwood in Sussex. 

 It is a very common fruit-tree at St. Germains en 

 Laye, where it is cultivated along with Pyrus Americana. 



4474. Use. The fruit has a peculiar acid flavor, and is eaten, when mellowed, like 

 that of the medlar, to which it is deemed inferior. It is common in Italy, and ripens at 

 Genoa in September, where it is esteemed good in dysentery and fluxes. The wood, 

 which is very hard, is held in repute for making mathematical rulers, and excisemen's 

 gauging-sticks. 



4475. Varieties. In Italy they have many varieties obtained from seeds; but those generally known 

 here are only three : the pear-shaped, apple-shaped, and berry-shaped. 



4476. Propagation. By seeds, cuttings, or layers ; or, which is preferable for plants intended to form 

 good-sized and early-bearing trees, by grafting on seedlings of their own species. It may also be grafted 

 on the pyrus, mespilus, or crateegus. 



4477. Soil. The best is a strong clayey loam. 



4478. Culture. The tree is recommended by Forsyth and Abercrombie to be grown as a standard at 

 twenty or thirty feet distance, and to be pruned and otherwise treated like the apple and pear. Choice 

 sorts, Abercrombie observes, are sometimes trained as dwarf standards, or espaliers. 



4479. Gathering the crop. It is late in autumn before this operation can be performed. Wipe the fruit 

 dry, and lay it on dry wheat-straw, spread on the open shelves of the fruit-room. In about a month it 

 will become mellow and fit for use. See Chap. IV. Sect. X. and Chap. V. Sect. III. 



Sect. 11. Stone-Fruits. 



4480. Of stone-fruits the most esteemed is the peach tribe, and next the apricot ; both 

 the trees natives of Persia, but acclimated in Britain, and remarkable for the lively colors 

 and early appearance of their blossoms. The peach is one of the most delicious of sum- 

 mer fruits. Besides the peach, nectarine, and apricot ; the almond, plum, and cherry, 

 are comprehended in this section. 



SuBSECT. 1. Peach. — Amygdalus Persica, L. (Black, t. 101.) Icos. Monog. L. and 

 Rosacea;, J. Malus Persica of the Romans. Pccher, Fr. ; Pfrschbaum, Ger. ; and 

 Persico, Ital. 



4481. The peach-tree in its natural state is under the middle size, with spreading 

 branches, lanceolate, smooth, and serrated leaves. The flowers are sessile, with reddish 

 calyces, and bell-shaped, pale or dark-red corollas, often bordered with purple ; the fruit 

 a roundish drupe, generally pointed, and with a longitudinal groove ; pulp, large, fleshy 

 or succulent, white or yellowish, sometimes reddish, abounding with a grateful, sweet, 

 acid juice ; stone, hard, irregularly furrowed ; kernel, bitter. The tree of quick growth, 

 and not of long duration ; blossoms in April, and ripens its fruit in August and Septem- 

 ber. Sickler considers Persia as the original country of the peach, which, in Media, is 

 deemed unwholesome ; but, when planted in Egypt, becomes pulpy, delicious, and 

 salubrious. The peach also, according to Columella, when first brought from Persia into 

 the Roman empire, possessed deleterious qualities ; which Knight concludes to have 

 arisen from those peaches being only swollen almonds ( the tuberes of Pliny), or ira- 



