166 On some new Varieties of the Peach. 



which the seed grows, should be made to acquire maturity 

 within as short a period as is consistent with its attaining 

 its full size, and perfect flavour : those qualities ought also 

 to be sought in the parent fruits, which are desired in the 

 offspring ; and the most perfect and vigorous offspring will 

 be obtained, of plants as of animals, when the male and 

 female parent are not closely related to each other. 



The varieties of the Peach, from which I first propagated 

 were the large French Mignonne, and the little Red Nutmeg, 

 using the stigmata of the former, and the pollen only of the 

 latter. The trees of each variety had been removed early 

 in the spring of the preceding year (1801) from pots of mo- 

 derate size into others which were very large, and were 

 filled with mould of the most favourable quality that I 

 could compose ; .and in these pots the plants had grown 

 with excessive vigour. The aid of artificial heat was em- 

 ployed in the spring of 1802, to enable the wood and blos- 

 soms of each plant to acquire the most perfect state of ma- 

 turity in the succeeding autumn ; and during winter the pots 

 were defended from severe frost, that the minute fibrous 

 roots of the plants might be wholly preserved ; and as the 

 spring approached, the trees were kept in as low and equal 

 a temperature as possible, that the powers of life, in the 

 plants, might not be prematurely excited into action, nor 

 in any degree uselessly expended. Nevertheless, owing to 

 the wood and buds having acquired maturity early in the 

 preceding autumn, and an ' accumlated excitability from 

 Jong rest and cold, the blossoms began to swell rapidly on 

 the first approach of spring ; and very early in March it 

 became necessary to place the trees in the forcing-house, the 



