the parent peach-tree. In another instance
Mr. Rivers raised a nectarine from a peach, and in the succeeding
generation another nectarine from this nectarine.[654] Other such
instances have been communicated to me, but they need not be given. Of
the converse case, namely, of nectarine-stones yielding peach-trees
(both free and cling-stones), we have six undoubted instances recorded
by Mr. Rivers; and in two of these instances the parent nectarines had
been seedlings from other nectarines.[655]

With respect to the more curious case of full-grown peach-trees
suddenly producing nectarines by bud-variation (or sports as they are
called by gardeners), the evidence is superabundant; there is also good
evidence of the same tree producing both peaches and nectarines, or
half and half fruit;--by this term I mean a fruit with the one-half a
perfect peach, and the other half a perfect nectarine.

Peter Collinson in 1741 recorded the first case of a peach-tree
producing a nectarine,[656] and in 1766 he added two other instances.
In the same work, the editor, Sir J. E. Smith, describes the more
remarkable case of a tree in Norfolk, which usually bore both perfect
nectarines and perfect peaches; but during two seasons some of the
fruit were half-and-half in nature.

{341} Mr. Salisbury in 1808[657] records six other cases of peach-trees
producing nectarines. Three of the varieties are named; viz., the
Alberge, Belle Chevreuse, and Royal George. This latter tree seldom
failed to produce both kinds of fruit. He gives another case of a
half-and-half fruit.

At Radford in Devonshire[658] a clingstone peach, purchased as the
Chancellor, was planted in 1815, and in 1824, after having previously
produced peaches alone, bore on one branch twelve nectarines; in 1825
the same branch yielded twenty-six nectarines, and in 1826 thirty-six
nectarines together with eighteen peaches. One of the peaches was
almost as smooth on one side as a nectarine. The nectarines were as
dark as, but smaller than, the Elruge.

At Beccles a Royal George peach[659] produced a fruit, "three parts of
it being peach and one part nectarine, quite distinct in appearance as
well as in flavour." The lines of division were longitudinal, as
represented in the engraving. A nectarine-tree grew five yards from
this tree.

Pro