394 HORTIC 
powers of life, in the plants, might not be prematurely 
excited into aftion, nor in any degree ufelefsly expended. 
Neverthelefs, owing to the wood and buds having ac¬ 
quired maturity earl}'' in the preceding autumn, and an 
accumulated excitability from long reft and cold, the 
bloifoms began to fwell rapidly on the firit approach of 
Ipring; and very early in March it became necefiary to 
place the trees in the hot-houfe, the bloifoms being fo far 
advanced as to be fubjeft to fome danger from froft. 
As foon as the bloifoms had fallen, the fruit was ri¬ 
pened under every advantage of heat and light, the glafs 
having been taken off every favourable hour, during the 
laft fwellingof the fruit, to admit the folar rays, without 
its intervention. Three French mignon Peaches only were 
fuffered to remain on each tree, and fix of thefe (which 
attained the greateft Hate of perfection) afforded eight 
plants in the fucceeding fpring. 
Of the new varieties thus obtained three are very early; 
two of them ripened ten days before the Royal George 
Peach, and three weeks before the red Roman Nectarine, 
which grew on the fame wall, and adjoined the feedling 
trees and therefore they are not much later than their 
male parent, which they llrongly refemble in colour, and 
in the form and character of their leaves ; but their fruit 
is much larger, many having exceeded feven inches and 
a half in circumference. The fruit of each of thefe new 
varieties is foft and melting, and very readily quits the 
fcone ; they are alfo very l’uperior in flavour. 
In the Ipring of 1809, ail the feedling plants were ex- 
poled without any covering, to afeertain the comparative 
degrees of hardinefs of their bloifoms ; and in this refpeft 
they were found to differ very widely. The bloffoms of 
two of the varieties appeared, however, to be very hardy, 
and promifed an abundant crop, though the feafon was 
very unfavourable. The bell Peach proved to be one of 
the molt hardy. 
“ The fuccefs, (fays Mr. Knight,) of the firffc and only 
experiment of which I have fully faen the refult, has 
completely anfwered my hopes; and I entertain little 
doubt that the Peach-tree might, in fucceliive generations, 
be fo far. hardened 'and naturalized to the climate of Eng¬ 
land and '' Ireland, as to fucceed well as a Jlandard in fa¬ 
vourable fituations. It is my with to try the effects of 
propagating fucceliive generations alternately from the 
open wall, and from the hot-houle, and of introducing 
the pollen from the open wall to the bloffoms of the hot- 
houfe, with the hope of obtaining varieties which will be 
at once hardy and early. .The Peach does not, like many 
other fpecies of fruit, much exercile the patience of the 
gardener who railes it from the feed ; for it may always 
be made to bear when three years old, and there is fome- 
thing in its habits which induces me to believe that it 
might be made to bear at only two years old. In prol'e- 
cuting fuch experiments, I would recommend the feed¬ 
ling Peach-trees to be retained in pots,-and buds from 
them, only, to be inferted in older trees; for their rapid 
and luxuriant growth is extremely troublei’ome on the 
wall, and pruning is death to them.” 
• In order to eftablilh beyond a doubt, the alfertion that 
foreign plants of a very delicate nature can be. made, by 
a fucceflion of feedlings, to adapt themfelves naturally to 
this climate, the following experiment was'made by fir 
jofeph Banks, bart. at his houfe at Spring Grove, near 
"Houn (low. 
In 1791, fome feeds of Zizania aquatica were procured 
fromCanada, and fown in a pond at Spring Grove; they 
grew’, and produced ftrong plants, which ripened their 
feeds ; thofe feeds vegetated in the fucceeding Ipring, but 
the plants they produced were weak, (lender, not half fo 
tall as thofe of the firfc generation, and grew in the (hal¬ 
lowed water only; the feeds of thefe plants produced 
others the next year fenfibly (tronger than their parents 
of the fecond year. 
In this manner the plants proceeded, fpringing up every 
year from the feeds of the preceding one, every year the 
ULTUU 
feedlings becoming vifibly Wronger and larger, and rilln* 
from deeper parts of the pond, till the vear^So^., when fe^ 
veral of the plant's were fix feet in height, and the, whole 
pond was in every part covered with them as thick as 
wheat on a well-managed field. 
Here we have an experiment which proves, that an an¬ 
nual plant, fcarcely able at firit to endure the ungenial 
fummer of England, has become. In fourteen generations, 
as ftrong and as vigorous as our indigenous plants are, 
and as perfeCt in all its parts as in its native country. 
Molt of our common flowering (hrubs have been lon«- 
introduced into the gardens; the bay-tree has been culti¬ 
vated more than two centuries ; it is mentioned by Tuf-. 
fer, in the lilt of garden-plants inferted in his book, called 
Five Hundred Points of Good Hulbandry, printed in 1573. 
The Laurel was introduced by Mr. Cole, a merchant, 
living at Harapftead, fome years before 1629, when Par- 
kinfon pubiiflied his Paradi 1 us Terreltris ; and at that time 
we had in our gardens, Oranges, Myrtles of three forts, 
Lauriftinus, Cyprefs, Phillyrea, Alatenius, Arbutus ; a 
Cactus brought from Bermudas, and the Paffioit-flower, 
which laft had flowered here, and (howed a remarkable 
particularity, by riling from the ground near a month 
(boner, if a feedling plant, than if it grew from roots 
brought from Virginia. All thefe were at riiat time ten¬ 
der plants ; Mr. Cole call a blanket over the top of his 
laurel, in frofty weather, to protect it; but, though 
nearly two centuries have fince elapfed, not one of them 
will yet bear with certainty our winter frolts. 
Though many of thefe fhrubs ripen their feeds in this 
climate, it never has been the cuftom of gardeners to fow 
them; they are chiefly propagated by fuckers and cut¬ 
tings, and fome few others by imported feeds ; confe- 
quently the very identical laurel introduced by Mr. Cole, 
and fome others of the plants enumerated by Parkinfon, 
are now actually growing in our gardens ; no wonder 
then, that thefe original (hru'os have not become hardier, 
though probably they would have donefo, had they paffed 
through leveral generations by being railed from Britilh 
feeds. 
Surely then it is worthy a trial, fince we find that 
plants railed from fuckers or cuttings do not grow hardier 
by time, and efpecially as the experiment on Zizania 
points out the road, to fow the feeds of luch tender Ihrubs 
and trees as will ripen them in this climate. Fourteen 
generations, in the cafe of the Zizania, produced a com¬ 
plete habit of fucceeding in England ; but a confiderable 
improvement in hardinefs was evident much ealier. Hence 
therefore, by the continued propagation from feedling 
plants, the peach and the neftarine, and other delicate 
fruits, may unqueftionably he brought to endure the un¬ 
certain feaibns of our climate, and ripen their fruit with 
more certainty, and of a larger fize, and finer flavour,, 
than any of the old varieties-now propagated in England. 
Many gardeners, not very deeply read in botany, hav¬ 
ing infilled that the peach and nectarine are two diftinCl 
fpecies of Amygdalus, it may be proper here to Ihow, 
that they are mere varieties'of the lame parent plant; and 
that both peaches and nectarines are fometimes the ipon- 
taiieous produce, not only of one tree, but of one and the 
fame branch. No lefs than fix inllances of this kind are 
enumerated by R. A. Saiifoury, efq. p. 103 of the Trans¬ 
actions of the Horticultural Society; which we lhall Hate 
from that gentleman’s papers. 
The firit inftance of which we have any tradition, 
appears to have been handed down in a letter of the 
late Peter ColUnfon, efq. to' the great Linnaeus. He 
there, after giving an account of a l’uppofed adulter¬ 
ous intercourfe between two apple-trees. Handing neat- 
each other, one of which in confequence bore both linooth 
and rough fruits, mentions a peach-tree that produced 
peaches and nectarines. 
The fecond inftance occurred in Yorkshire, at Londef- 
borough, then the refidence of the earl of Burlington ; it 
made lo much noife at the time, which was. previous to 
the 
