THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
291 
Hesperides was the quince (Pyrns cydonia), for the 
orange was unknown to the Greeks, while the quince 
is indigenous to the Cretan isles, and its size and 
ofttimes brilliant color might well suggest a golden 
apple. 
But of all the fruit contributed by the Rosaceae, the 
peach and its allies are doubtless the most delicious. 
We are indebted to Persia for our ordinary peach (Amyg- 
dalus Persica), whence it was first introduced to the Ro¬ 
man Empire during the reign of Claudius. We may rea¬ 
sonably suppose that the original peach was merely a 
variation of the almond, in which the stone was dimin¬ 
ished, while the outer pulp was increased. It is found in 
this condition in Media to the present day, where it is 
considered unwholesome, owing to the amount of prussic 
acid contained in the pulp, which is also the case with the 
almond. From Rome the peach made its way into Eng¬ 
land, where it is always grown against a sunny wall, or 
under glass. The nectarine is merely a smooth-skinned 
peach. It is an unfamiliar fruit in this country, as it 
seems impossible to protect it from the ravages of the 
curculio. The most singular of the peach tribe is the flat 
peach of China, which appears to have been flattened at 
the head and stalk till it resembles a ring of flesh with 
the stone in the middle. We are all sufficiently acquaint¬ 
ed with the original ancestor of the peach—the almond 
(Amygdalus communis )—cultivated in this country for 
its lovely rosy flowers, the dwarf and double-flowering 
sorts being preferred. Like most of our spring shrubs, 
it produces flowers before the leaves, as Arnold says : 
“ Blossom, clouding all the tree 
With thy crimson ’broidery. 
Long before a leaf of green 
On the bravest bough is seen.” 
The almond is probably a native of the Orient, being 
plentiful in Syria and Canaan; it is also found in Barbary 
and China. 
The genus Prunus, belonging to the same natural or¬ 
der as the foregoing, comprises the apricot, plum, cherry, 
sloe and many ornamental shrubs. The most notice¬ 
able characteristic of them is that they all possess, to a 
greater or less degree, a portion of prussic acid, many of 
them being deleterious in the extreme. An old writer 
says that the Persians originally sent the peach to Egypt 
to poison the inhabitants, and one species of apricot is 
called by the people of Barbary “ inatza Franca or the 
killer of the Christians. However, the poisonous quality is 
diminished or destroyed by culture, as in the case of the 
solanums. 
The apricot (. Prunus Armeniaca) may be considered 
the most delicious of the tribe, though it is familiar to 
many only in the preserved form. We have heard it 
described as a glorified peach, not an inapt comparison. 
The apricot is very widely diffused through Asia, growing 
extensively on the barren mountains west of China. The 
Persians call the fine fruit of Iran “ The seed of the sun.” 
It was known to the Greeks in the time of Dioscorides, 
and was called “ precocia,” from its early ripening. The 
early writers on horticulture called it “a precoke,” of 
which our modern name is evidently a corruption. The 
Arabic name is “berikach.” It obtains its specific name 
Armeniaca from the fact that it covers the slopes of the 
Caucasus and Ararat in Armenia. It is grown with 
much success in California, though, like the nectarine, it 
is a failure in the Eastern States. It grows profusely in 
the oases of the Great Desert, where it is dried in great 
quantities for the Egyptian market, the fruit being small 
but of exquisite flavor. E. L. Taplin. 
STORING VEGETABLES FOR USE IN WINTER. 
I T matters not how much skill or care has been be¬ 
stowed upon a crop of vegetables for winter use; 
unless they are properly stored we may rest assured that 
they will not prove to be satisfactory in all respects. It is 
customary with most persons to place all their vegeta¬ 
bles in heaps on the cellar floor, and the result is that 
they are found to be wilted, tough and inferior in quality, 
to say nothing of the great loss sustained by the ones on 
the outside of the heap becoming dried up and thus ren¬ 
dered entirely useless. 
Where vegetables are grown on a limited scale, or by 
amateurs, I think it preferable to store them in barrels or 
boxes; not only do they keep better, but the cellar is 
given a much neater appearance. The best place for 
keeping vegetables intended for winter use is to place 
them in a dry, cool, frost-proof cellar, where a low tem¬ 
perature can be maintained. The best material to use 
for packing is clean sand, like that used for building pur¬ 
poses. In packing, let the box or barrel be about one- 
third filled with the roots, then fill with enough sand to 
cover all, and continue in this manner until the entire box 
or barrel is filled. 
Do not become impatient and take up all of your vege¬ 
tables on the approach of the first light frost. Nothing is 
gained by so doing, and it is always best to let them re¬ 
main outside as long as possible. In this vicinity it is 
time enough to commence about the first week in No¬ 
vember ; so with these few remarks I will endeavor to 
offer a few suggestions as to the proper storing of some 
of the principal garden vegetables, and would here re¬ 
mark that all of them should be gathered and stored in 
dry, pleasant weather, and not when wet or damp. 
Beets and Radishes —Should be taken up early in No¬ 
vember. Take them up carefully, so as not to injure or 
mutilate the roots in the least, as this will materially in¬ 
jure their keeping qualities, and it also injures the cook¬ 
ing qualities of beets. Carefully remove all decayed 
leaves, and trim the others to within an inch of the roots, 
and store in sand in boxes or barrels. 
Cabbages —Should be pulled up by the roots, turned 
upside down, placed close together in rows, and covered 
up to the roots with earth in the form of the letter V 
inverted. When wanted for use they can be easily 
obtained, and it is well to remove a dozen or so to the cel- 
