8 Horticultural Observations [Appendix. 



Apricot, 



Our Gardeners believe that the Moorpark Apricot is the fruit 

 called A bricot Piche by the French; but this is not the case with 

 all the trees sold under that name. The Abricot Peche is a large 

 tree, which in France is generally, if not always, raised from the 

 stone without grafting : it ripens later than the rest, not till the 

 end of August. The stone is so soft,* that a pin will pierce through 

 it : the kernel is bitter. 



Pears. 



The Crassane may be improved, and all its harshness destroyed, 

 by grafting upon the Doyenne\ a pear known in our gardens. 

 Apples. 



The French do not suffer their Apple Trees, to form wild 

 heads as ours do, and shade all things planted near them; their 

 standard trees, of all kinds, when in gardens, are trained in such 

 manner as to cast the least shade possible. A form like a pyra- 

 mid, called by them quenouille, is very generally used. 



Plums. 



The Green Gage, called in French La Reine Claude, is much 

 improved, if grafted on an Apricot or a Peach stock.f 

 Maize, Egg Plant, and Sweet Potatoes. 



All these plants are reared for use in some kitchen gardens of 

 France, though probably not in many. 



Maize is sown in the ground, without heat; when the spike is 



* This peculiarity of the Abricot Pdche is ill described by the French author : it 

 really consists of a perforation on the smooth side of the stone, through which, m 

 most cases, a pin may be easily pushed ; in some cases the tube is crooked, but stiU 

 perforated ; in a still fewer it is a deep groove, the top not being covered over with 

 stony matter. Our original Moorpark Apricot is the Abricot P<?che. This peculiarity 

 in the stone will serve to distinguish it from the less valuable varieties, which are too 

 often substituted in its place by the nursery gardener. 



t This name of Green Gage is said to have originated from the following accident. 

 The Gage family, in the last century, procured from the monks of the Chartreuse, at 

 Paris, a collection of fruit trees : these arrived in England, with the tickets safely 

 affixed to them, except only the Reine Claude, the ticket of which had been rubbed 

 off in the passage. The gardener being, from this circumstance, ignorant of the 

 name, called it, when it bore fruit, the Green Gage. 



