(10/59. M. Carriere in 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1865 page 1154.) According to Robertson (10/60. 'Transact. Hort. Soc.' volume 3 page 332. See also 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1865 page 271 to same effect. Also 'Journal of Horticulture' September 26, 1865 page 254.) the trees with glandular leaves are liable to blister, but not in any great degree to mildew; whilst the non-glandular trees are more subject to curl, to mildew, and to the attacks of aphides. The varieties differ in the period of their maturity, in the fruit keeping well, and in hardiness,--the latter circumstance being especially attended to in the United States. Certain varieties, such as the Bellegarde, stand forcing in hot-houses better than other varieties. The flat-peach of China is the most remarkable of all the varieties; it is so much depressed towards the summit, that the stone is here covered only by roughened skin and not by a fleshy layer. (10/61. 'Transact. Hort. Soc.' volume 4 page 512.) Another Chinese variety, called the Honey-peach, is remarkable from the fruit terminating in a long sharp point; its leaves are glandless and widely dentate. (10/62. 'Journal of Horticulture' September 8, 1853 page 188.) The Emperor of Russia peach is a third singular variety, having deeply double-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. (10/63. 'Transact. Hort. Soc.' volume 6 page 412.)
The peach has 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. (10/64. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1857 page 216.) One of these varieties, called the camellia-flowered, bears flowers above 2 1/4 inches in diameter, whilst those of the fruit-bearing kinds do not at most exceed 1 1/4 inch in diameter. The flowers of the double-flowered peaches have the singular property (10/65. 'Journal of Hort. Soc.' volume 2 page 283.) of frequently producing double or treble fruit. Finally, there is good reason to believe that the peach is an almond profoundly modified; but whatever its origin may have been, there can be no doubt that it has yielded during the last eighteen centuries many varieties, some of them strongly characterised, belonging both to the nectarine and peach form.
APRICOT (Prunus armeniaca).
It is commonly admitted that this tree is descended from a single species, now found wild in the Caucasian region. (10/66. Alph. de Candolle 'Geograph. Bot.' page 879.) On this view the varieties deserve notice, because they illustrate differences supposed by some botanists to be of specific value in the almond and plum. The best monograph on the apricot is by Mr. Thompson (10/67. 'Transact. Hort. Soc.' 2nd series volume 1 1835 page 56. See also 'Cat. of Fruit in Garden of Hort. Soc.' 3rd edition 1842.) who describes seventeen varieties. We have seen that peaches and nectarines vary in a strictly parallel manner; and in the apricot, which forms a closely allied genus, we again meet with variations analogous to those of the peach, as well as to those of the plum. The varieties differ considerably in the shape of their leaves, which are either serrated or crenated, sometimes with ear-like appendages at their bases, and sometimes with glands on the petioles. The flowers are generally alike, but are small in the Masculine. The fruit varies much in size, shape, and in having the suture little pronounced or absent; in the skin being smooth, or downy, as in the orange-apricot; and in the flesh clinging to the stone, as in the last-mentioned kind, or in readily separating from it, as in the Turkey- apricot. In all these differences we see the closest analogy with the varieties of the peach and nectarine. In the stone we have more important differences, and these in the case of the plum have been esteemed of specific value: in some apricots the stone is almost spherical, in others much flattened, being either sharp in front or blunt at both ends, sometimes channelled along the back, or with a sharp ridge along both margins.