388 On the Effects of Age upon Fruit Trees. 



which they best deserved the attention of the planter. This 

 remark I wish particularly to apply to the Peach and Necta- 

 rine ; varieties of which, of equal excellence, and much su- 

 perior vigour and hardiness, may be easily obtained from 

 seeds ripened in the forcing houses, if not upon the open 

 walls, of our gardens. I sent to you in the last autumn, 

 many new varieties of Nectarines, raised in my Peach house 

 from seeds of the Elruge, and the pollen of the Early Violet 

 Nectarine. They were the produce of buds inserted into 

 the bearing branches of old Peach and Nectarine trees, grow- 

 ing upon my walls, the original seedling trees not having been 

 retained in my garden. 



Every attention was paid to make the fruit from which the 

 seeds were taken, attain the highest state of perfection, and 

 the crop of fruit of the trees which bore them, and from 

 which the pollen was taken, was sacrificed almost wholly in 

 the preceding season, that both those might be in the most 

 efficient and vigorous state; a*nd I preferred the forcing 

 house to the open wall, that the wood and blossoms might 

 attain the most perfect state of maturity. Of the merits of 

 the Nectarines you received, I wish to decline giving an 

 opinion ; and I shall therefore only remark, that in every un- 

 favourable season, such as the last, the stones are always 

 found larger, relatively to the bulk of the fruit, than in fa- 

 vourable seasons. But of the habits of the trees, or rather 

 of the branches (for few of the trees have been preserved) 

 I can speak with much satisfaction. The wood of many has 

 ripened more perfectly, and offers a much stronger and more 

 abundant blossom than is found on any of the branches of the 

 parent varieties; and I feel perfectly confident that some of 



