64 



Report upon the Varieties of Apricot, 



when bearing a heavy crop. Nothing of this has been observed in 

 the Royal, but, whether it will be less subject to this accident, the 

 limited extent of its cultivation has not yet been sufficient to prove. 

 At all events its time of ripening, being about ten days earlier than 

 the Moorpark, makes it an object of considerable importance. 



7. Brussels Apricot. 

 All the trees received under this name, which have fruited in 

 the Garden, have proved to be the same as the Roman. It seems 

 hopeless to attempt to disentangle the synonymes of writers who 

 have confounded it with other kinds, and successively copied the 

 one from the other ; and as the true kind has not yet fruited in 

 the Garden, no description is given of it here. Some very old 

 open-standard trees growing in the Gardens of His Grace the 

 Duke of Devonshire, at Chiswick House, are believed to be the 

 true sort, and in favourable seasons they bear well. Their fruit is 

 oval, compressed, of a pale orange colour, acquiring a brown tinge 

 with deep blood-red specks next the sun ; the flesh is juicy, some- 

 what crisp, and the fruit is most excellent for preserving ; the kernel 

 is bitter. 



8. Shipley's Apricot. 

 Syn. Shipley's. Hort. Soc. Cat No. 24. 

 Blenheim, -n 



Shipley s, f j> varims Collections. 



Shipley s large, i 

 Miss Shipley's, J 



A fine looking fruit, very like the Roman but larger ; oval, compressed, rather oblique 

 at the base and apex. Skin clear yellow, minutely speckled with brown. Flesh of a 

 very bright deep orange, juicy, with a pleasant sweetish-acid flavour, without much 

 aroma; not adhering in any degree to the stone. The latter is of an almost round 

 figure, a little elongated, and without a pervious channel. Kernel very bitter. 



This sort is larger and more downy than the Roman which it 

 resembles. Sometimes it is as high coloured as the Moorpark, 



