588 
TIIE PEACH. 
Although these sorts can be reduced and kept in j yramidal 
shape, they are not so well fitted for it, and will nevei bear so 
well, if they bear at all. 
CHAPTER XXII. 
THE PEACH. 
Persica vulgaris , Dec. ; Posaceoe of botanists. 
Picker, of the French ; Pfirschbaum , German ; Persickkeboom, Dutch ; Per 
sica, Italian ; and El Melocoton , Spanish. 
The peach tree is a native of Persia and China, and was 
brought from the former country to Italy by the Romans in the 
time of the Emperor Claudius. It was considerably cultivated 
in Britain as early as the year 1550, and was introduced to this 
country by the early settlers somewhere about 1G80. From 
Persia, its native country, its name in all languages — Persico — 
Pecher — peach — has evidently been derived. 
The peach is a rather small fruit tree, with narrow, smooth, 
serrated leaves, and pink blossoms. It is more tender and of 
shorter duration than most other of the fruits usually grown in 
temperate climates. It is never raised in England, and not 
generally in France, without the aid of walls. Even at Mon 
treuil, near Paris, a village whose whole population is mainly 
employed in cultivating the peach for market, it is grown entirely 
upon whitewashed walls. China and the United States are, 
therefore, the only temperate countries where the peach and the 
apple both attain their highest perfection in the open orchard. 
The peaches of Pekin are celebrated as being the finest in the 
w r orld, and of double the usual size.* 
It is a curious fact in the history of the peach, that with its 
delicious flavour were once coupled, in the East, certain notions 
of its poisonous qualities. This idea seems vaguely to have 
accompanied it into Europe, for Pliny mentions that it was sup- 
posed that the king of Persia had sent them into Egypt to poison 
the inhabitants, with whom he was then at war. As the peach 
and the almond are closely related, it has been conjectured by 
Mr. Knight that the poisonous peaches referred to were swollen 
almonds, which contain a considerable quantity of prussic acid. 
But it is also worth remarking that the peach tree seems to hold 
* The Horticultural world, since our intercourse has been put upon a 
more favourable footing with the “ Celestial Empire,” are looking with great 
eagerness to the introduction of many valuable plants and trees, the Chi 
nese being the most curious and skilful of merely practical gardeners. 
