reader is referred to our article on the domestic cultivated plum, under the head of "Insects." The seventeen-year locust, (Cicada septendecem,) although most usually found on the oak, often resorts to other forest trees, when actuated by necessity, and not unfrequently deposits her eggs on the branches of the peach-tree, when no other convenient shrub or tree is at hand. Peach-trees once attacked by this most pernicious insect, seldom, if ever, recover from the inflicted wounds. Among the diseases incident to plants, there is no one involved in more mystery than that strange disorder in the peach-tree, commonly called the "yellows." It was noticed in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, by Judge Peters, in 1790, or the year following. From perfect verdure, he states, the leaves of his trees turned yellow in a few days, and their bodies blackened in spots. He attributed the origin of the disease to some morbid affection of the air, which he conceived has the most to do with all vegetation, as well in its food and sustenance, as in its decay and dissolution. From Philadelphia, the malady spread, by degrees, to other parts of the country; and by 1810, in New Jersey, there were left but a few peach orchards alive, or in a flourishing state. It is said to have appeared in the vicinity of New York, in about the year 1801; in Connecticut, in 1815; and in Massachusetts, in 1824. It is also prevalent in the southern states of the union, and west of the Alleghany Mountains. The phenomena attending the development of this disease, are given in detail, in the second number of the "Albany Cultivator," of 1845, by Mr. Noyes Darling, of New Haven, from which we make the following condensed extracts :"There are two marks or symptoms, by which the presence of the disease is indicated. One is, the shooting out from the body or limbs of the tree, of very small, slender shoots, about the size of a hen's quill. The leaves upon these shoots are commonly destitute of green colour, as if blanched, or as if grown in a dark cellar; and like the shoots which bear them, are of diminutive growth, rarely exceeding an inch in length. These shoots do not usually start from the common, visible buds at the points where the leaves join the stem, but from unseen, latent buds in the bark of the trunk or large branches. The other symptom is, the ripening of the fruit two to four weeks before its natural season of maturity. Most generally also, the fruit, whatever be its natural colour, is more or less spotted with purplish-red specks. If shoots, such as are above described, appear upon a tree, or without them, if the fruit upon any part of it (not wormy) ripens before the proper time, it may be certainly known that the tree has the yellows. These are not the only marks or symptoms of the disease; but they are those which are the most readily discovered. The ordinary leaves of the tree, or at least those upon the diseased portion of it, commonly undergo a slight change of colour. Instead of a bright glossy green, they take on a dull yellowish tinge. The wood also, when the disease is considerably advanced, becomes unelastic, so that its branches, when moved by the wind, instead of the graceful waving of health, have a stiff jerking motion. ***** The fruit, the first season of attack, usually grows to its proper size. The second season, it is uniformly small, not more than a half or a quarter of its usual size. Whatever be the natural colour of the fruit, red, yellow, white, or green, it is more or less, when diseased, coloured with purplish-red; generally in specks, or coarse dots. The flesh, quite to the stone, is often coloured, and most deeply around the stone. By the coloured specks, a person may easily distinguish by the eye, diseased, from healthy fruit. ***** In the first summer of disease, it is not always that the whole tree appears affected. The slender shoots may show themselves on one branch only, the rest of the tree having every appearance of health. In like manner, the fruit upon one branch may ripen four weeks too soon, upon another two weeks too soon, and upon the rest of the tree at the natural time. The second season, all the fruit will ripen three or four weeks too soon. The tree sometimes dies the next year after the appearance of the disease, and sometimes lingers along with a feeble life for two or three years. ***** Soil, whether of clay or sand, whether moist or dry, whether cultivated or in grass, manured or unmanured, does not appear to me, clearly, either to increase or diminish the liability to disease. Trees standing in exposed and sheltered situations, walled and in open ground, on hills and in valleys, seem alike and equally liable. ***** When the disease commences in a garden or orchard containing a considerable number of trees, it does not attack all at once. It breaks out in patches, which are progressively enlarged, till eventually all the trees become victims to the malady. ** ** I took a blossom from a diseased tree, and applied the dust (pollen) to the blossom of a young tree in my garden. The tree thus exposed to infection, showed no mark of disease, either in that or the succeeding year. ** I took some buds from a tree, having symptoms of the yellows, and inserted part into peach, part into apricot, and part into almond stocks. Some of the inoculations took well, but all showed marks of disease the next season. The peach and almond stocks, with their buds, died the second winter after inoculation. One apricot stock lived five years, but its peach top grew, in that time, to be only about three feet high. ***** In an orchard or garden, containing both old and young trees, the young trees will generally be diseased first. ***** Peach-trees budded on apricots, plums, and sweet almonds, are liable to the yellows. ***** Most of the applications for the cure of the disease, have been made on the supposition that it was caused by the peach-worm. Such are ashes, scalding water, charcoal, lime, salt, saltpetre, fish-oil, and urine. All of them have more or less agency in excluding the borer, but are not all effectual, even for that purpose. Some of them have seemed to promote, for a time, the growth of the trees, and to give a deeper green to their leaves; but none that I have ever observed, have at at all checked the progress of the yellows." The most effectual, and the only remedy for this disease, hitherto discovered, is, on the first symptoms of decay, to grub up the trees by the roots, and convert them at once into fuel. The principal other accidents to which the peach-tree is liable, are the splitting of the limbs at the forks by excessive weight, or by high winds, and the bursting of the buds and bark by severe frosts in open and wet winters. Properties and Uses. The wood of the peach-tree is hard, compact, of a roseate hue, and is susceptible of a fine polish; but owing to its inferior size and comparative scarcity, it is but little used in the arts, or for fuel, except in countries where other kinds of wood are rare. When obtained, however, of suitable dimensions, it may be employed for similar purposes as that of the almond. A colour may also be extracted from it called rose-pink. Its leaves yield, by distillation, a volatile oil, of a yellow colour, containing hydrocyanic acid. Its bark, blossoms, and kernels of the fruit, also possess the same poisonous property. From the quantity of gum and sugar contained in the delicious pulp, the peach is nutritious, and is employed as a desert, both fresh and preserved. From the malic acid contained in its juice, it is slightly refrigerant, and if eaten in moderate quantities, it is generally considered as wholesome; but if taken too freely, it is liable to disorder the bowels. When stewed with sugar, it may be given as a mild laxative to convalescents. The kernels may be used for the same purpose as those of the bitter almond. The leaves are sometimes employed by the cook, the liquorist, and the confectioner, for flavouring, and they have also been substituted for Chinese tea; but, as fatal consequences have sometimes followed these uses, they should be looked upon with precaution. in The preservation of peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, and other kinds of fruit, syrup, occupy a prominent rank in the industry and commerce of France and of Majorca, and doubtless could be profitably carried on in those parts of the United States where these fruits are cultivated in abundance. To those who are desirous of entering into the business on an extensive scale, we would recommend the "Nouveau Manuel du Limonadier, du Glacier, du Chocolatier, et du Confiseur," par MM. Cardelli, Lionnet-Clémandot, et Julia de Fontenelle, published at Paris in 1838; or, what would be still better, the employment of an intelligent confiseur who is practically acquainted with all its manipulations. As an ornamental tree or shrub, the peach, and several of its varieties, are highly deserving of culture, and group well with the double-flowered cherry, the apple, and with the plum. Derivation. The name Prunus is said to have been of oriental origin, the wild plant, according to Galen, being called proumnos in Asia. The Greek name of the plum, as mentioned by Theophrastus, is proune; whence the Latin, Prunus. Generic Characters. Drupe ovate or oblong, fleshy, quite smooth, covered with a pruinose powder. Putamen (stone) compressed, acute on both sides, somewhat furrowed at the edges, otherwise smooth. Young leaves convolute. Pedicels umbellate-fasciculate, one-flowered, evolved before or after the leaves.-De Candolle, Prodromus. HE species belonging to this genus are mostly deciduous, low trees or shrubs, bearing edible fruit, natives of Europe, Asia, and North America. Many of them are spiny in the wild state, and all have showy flowers. The epidermis of the bark of the plum, as well as that of the birch and cherry, is readily divisible transversely, and may frequently be seen divided, in this manner, into rings on the tree. There are upwards of thirty species enumerated in catalogues; but it is a question whether one-half of them are not mere varieties. To this genus, formerly belonged the Apricot, (Armeniaca vulgaris, of Tournefort, De Candolle, Loudon, and others,) and for the convenience of classification, we have retained the Linnæan name. This tree is in general cultivation throughout the temperate regions of the globe, and is distinguished, at first sight, from the almond, peach, and nectarine, by its heart-shaped, smooth, shining leaves, and white flowers. There are several wild varieties, bearing flowers of different shades of pink, and are chiefly cultivated for ornament. The great beauty of both the wild and the cultivated sorts of the apricot is, that in high latitudes, they generally come into bloom before most other trees. The most noted species of this genus proper, are the domestic cultivated plum (Prunus domestica); the sloe, or black thorn, of Europe (Prunus spinosa); the engrafted, or bullace plum (Prunus insititia); the beach-plum (Prunus maritima); and the moose or American wild plum (Prunus americana.) The latter is said to be the only species indigenous to North America which has a flat stone, groved on both margins. The other species native of this country, are somewhat intermediate in their fruit, between the cherry and the plum, the stone being slightly compressed, and the glaucous bloom wanting, except in the Prunus maritima; yet they are evidently Plums and not Cherries, in the opinion of Torrey and Gray, and cannot with propriety be separated from this genus. The beach-plum abounds along the sandy sea-coast of the United States, from Maine to Alabama. The moose-plum occurs on the banks of streams and other waters, in hedges, and on prairies, from Canada to Texas, and is often cultivated with success. Both of these species are said to escape the attacks of the curculio, as no warts or excrescences are found upon them, even when growing in the immediate vicinity of infested foreign trees. Hence it has been suggested that they might be propagated to advantage from the stone, for the purpose of grafting or budding other fruits upon. Derivations. The specific name, armeniaca, is derived from Armenia, the country from which this tree was supposed origi nally to have been brought to Europe. The popular English name, Apricot, was originally precocia, and was supposed by some to have been derived from præcor, early or precocious, from its fruit ripening sooner than most others. Some derive it from the Arabic, berkoche; whence the Spanish and Italian names. Engravings. Du Hamel, Traité des Arbres et Arbustes, i., p. 49; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, ii., figs. 398, 399, et vi., pl. 107; and the figures below. Specific Characters. Flowers sessile. Leaves heart-shaped or ovate.-De Candolle, Prodromus. Description. HE Common Apricot, in with a handsome, spreading, somewhat orbicular but few other trees are in bloom. They usually make their appearance at Naples, in Italy, and at Augusta, in Georgia, by the 20th of February; in England, by the first of April, and nearly a month later at New York. The nut or stone of the fruit is fleshy, juicy, with its surface downy, obtuse at one end, acute at the other, and furrowed at both lateral edges, but the other parts are even. Varieties. There are two forms of this kind of apricot, either of which may be considered as the species, and two varieties: : 1. P. A. OVALIFOLIA. Oval-leaved Apricot-tree, the leaves of which are oval, and the fruit small. 2. P. A. CORDIFOLIA. Heart-shaped-leaved Apricot-tree, with broad, heart-shaped leaves, and large fruit. 3. P. A. FOLIIS VARIEGATIS. Variegated-leaved Apricot-tree. 4. P. A. FLORE PLENO. Double-flowered Apricot-tree. It is said that the Chinese have a great number of double-flowered varieties of this tree, which they plant on little mounts for ornament, and dwarfs in pots, for their apartments. Geography and History. The Prunus armeniaca is indigenous to Armenia, Caucasus, the Himalayas, China, and Japan. From its trivial name, it is gene |