ch. 3. Chinese Honey Peach. 4. English Almond. 5. Barcelona
Almond. 6. Malaga Almond. 7. Soft-shelled French Almond. 8. Smyrna
Almond.]

{338}

Andrew Knight,[637] from finding that a seedling-tree, raised from a
sweet almond fertilised by the pollen of a peach, yielded fruit quite
like that of a peach, suspected that the peach-tree is a modified
almond; and in this he has been followed by various authors.[638] A
first-rate peach, almost globular in shape, formed of soft and sweet
pulp, surrounding a hard, much furrowed, and slightly-flattened stone,
certainly differs greatly from an almond, with its soft, slightly
furrowed, much flattened, and elongated stone, protected by a tough,
greenish layer of bitter flesh. Mr. Bentham[639] has particularly
called attention to the stone of the almond being so much more
flattened than that of the peach. But in the several varieties of the
almond, the stone differs greatly in the degree to which it is
compressed, in size, shape, strength, and in the depth of the furrows,
as may be seen in the accompanying drawings (Nos. 4 to 8) of such kinds
as I have been able to collect. With peach-stones, also (Nos. 1 to 3)
the degree of compression and elongation is seen to vary; so that the
stone of the Chinese Honey-peach (fig. 3) is much more elongated and
compressed than that of the (No. 8) Smyrna almond. Mr. Rivers of
Sawbridgeworth, to whom I am indebted for some of the specimens above
figured, and who has had such great horticultural experience, has
called my attention to several varieties which connect the almond and
the peach. In France there is a variety called the Peach-almond, which
Mr. Rivers formerly cultivated, and which is correctly described in a
French catalogue as being oval and swollen, with the aspect of a peach,
including a hard stone surrounded by a fleshy covering, which is
sometimes eatable.[640] A remarkable statement by M. Luizet has
recently appeared in the 'Revue Horticole,'[641] namely, that a
Peach-almond, grafted on a peach, bore during 1863 and 1864 almonds
alone, but in 1865 bore six peaches and no almonds. M. Carriere, in
commenting on this fact, cites the case of a double-flowered almond
which, after producing during several years almonds, suddenly bore for
two years in succession spherical fleshy peach-like fruits, but i