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Show 342 li'RUI'l'S. CHAP. x. nectarines would give birth by bud-variation or by seed to peaches, oftener than peaches to nectarines; but this is by no means the case. . Two explanations have been suggested to account for these conversiOns. First, that tho parent-trees have been in every case bybridssa between the peach and nectarine, and have reverted by bud-variation or by seed to ono of their pnrc parent-forms. This view in itself is not very improbable; fOl' tho Mountaineer poach, which was raised by Knight fi·om the red nutmeg peach by pollen of the violette hf.ttivc ncctarino,6 ' 1 produces poaches, but these are said sometimes to partake of tho smoothness and flavour of tho nectarine. But lot it lJo observed that in the previous list no less than six well-known varieties and several other unnamed varieties of tho peach have once suddenly produced perfect nectarines by bud-variation; and it would be an extremely rash supposition that all these varieties of the peach, which have been cultivated for years in many districts, and which show not a vestige of a mixed parentage, are, nevertheless, hybrids. A second explanation is, that the fruit of tho poach has been directly affected by the pollen of tho nectarine : although this certainly is possible, H cannot hero ,tpply; foL' we have not a shadow of evidence that a branch which has borne f111it directly affected by foreign pollen is so profoundly modified as afterwards to pl'oduco buds which continuo to yield fruit of tho now and modified form. Now it is known that when a bud on a peach-tree has once borne a nectarine tho same branch bas in several instances gone on during succes i vc years producing nectarines. rrho Carclew nectarine, on 1hc other hand, first produced half-and-half fruit, and subsequently pure peaches. lienee we may confidently accept the common view that the nectarine is a variety of tho peach, which may bo produced either by budvariation or from seed. In the following chapter many analogous cases of bud-variation will be given. The varieties of tho peach and nectarine run in parallel lines. In both ({las cs tho kinds differ from each other in tho flesh of the fruit being white, red, or yellow; in being clingstones or fre'estones; in the flowers being largo or small, with certain other characteristic differences; and in the leaves being serrated without glands, or crenated and furnished with globose or reniform glands.55 We can hardly account for this parallelism by supposing that each variety of the nectarine is descended from a corresponding variety of the peach; for though our nectarines are certainly the descendants of several kinds of peaches, yet a large number are the descendants of other nectarines, and they vary so much when thus reproduced that we can scarcely admit the above explanation. The varieties of tho peach have largely increased in number since the Christian era, w bon from two to five varieties alone were known; 56 and the nectarine was unknown. At the present time, besides many varieties said to exist in China, Downing describes in tho United States seventy-nine sa .AJph. De Candolle, ' Geograph. Bot.,' p. 886. 54 Thompson, in Loudon's' Encyclop. oC Gardening,' p. !Jll. ~ r, • Catalogue of Fruit in Garden of Hort. Soe.,' 1842, p. 105. .sG Dr. A. 'l'argioni-'fozzetti, 'Joumttl Hort. Soc.,' vol. ix. p. 167. Alph. De Caudolle, 'Gcograplt. Bot.,' p. 885. CHAP. X. PEACH AND NECTARINE. 343 native and imported varieties of the peach; and a few years ago Lindley 67 enumerated one hundred and sixty-four varieties of the peach and nectarine grown in England. I have already indicated the chief points of difference between the several varieties. N ectarinos, even when produced from distinct kinds of peaches, always possess their own peculiar flavour, and are smooth and small. Clingstone and freestone poaches, which differ in the ripe flesh either firmly adhering to tho stone, or easily separating from it, also differ in tho character of the stone itself; that of the freestones or molters being more deeply fissured, with tho sides of tho fissures smoother than in clingstones. In the various kinds, the flowers differ not only in size, but in the larger flowers the petals are differently shaped, more imbricated, generally rod in the centre and palo towards the margin ; whereas in the smaller flowers the margins of tho petal are usually more darkly coloured. · One variety has nearly white flowers. The leaves are more or less serrated, and are either destitute of glands, or have globose or reniform glands; 58 and some few peaches, such as the Brugnon, bear on the same tree both globular and kidney-shaped glands. 59 According to Robertson 60 the trees with glandular leaves are liable to blister, but not in any great degree to mildew; whilst the non-glandular trees aro more subject to curl, to mildew, and to the attacks of aphides. The varieties differ in the period of theil' matmity, in the fl'uit keeping well, and in hardiness,-the latter circumstance being especially attended to in the United States. Certain varieties, such as. tho Bcllegarde, stand forcing in hot-houses better than other val'ieties. The flat-peach of China is the most remarkable of all the varieties; it is so much depTessed towards the summit, that the stone is here covered only by Toughened skin and not by a fleshy layer.61 Another Chinese vaTiety, called thfl Honey-peach, is remarkable from the fruit terminating· in a long sharp point; its leaves are glandless and widely dentate. 62 The Emperor of Russia peach is a third singular variety, having deeply and doubly serrated leaves; the fruit is deeply cleft with one-half projecting considerably beyond the other; it originated in America, and its seedlings inherit similar leaves.63 The peach bas also produced in China a small class of trees valued for ornament, namely the. double-flowered; of these five varieties are now known in England, varying from pure white, through rose, to intense crimson.64 One of these varieties, called the camellia-flowered, bears flowers above 2t inches in diameter, whilst those of the fruit-bearing kinds do not at most exceed H inch in diameter. The flowers of the double- 57 ' Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. v. p. 554. 58 Loudon's • Encyclop. of Gardening,' p. 907. 50 M. Carriere, in 'Garcl. Chron.,' 1865, p. 1154. Go • '.rro.nsact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. iii. p. 332. See also 'Gardener's Chronicle,' 1865, p. 271, to same effect. Also 'Jom·ual of llol'ticulturc,' Sept. 26th, 1865, p. 254. 61 ' Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. iv. p. 512. G2 • Journal of Horticulture,' Sept. 8th, 1863, p. 188. 63 • Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. vi. p. 412. 64 'Gardener's Chronicle,' 1857, p. 216. |