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Rh gradually, and at first the house should be merely kept closed at a temperature of about 45°, but the heat should gradually increase to 0° at night by the time the trees are in flower, and to 60° when the fruit is set, after which the house should be kept moist by sprinkling the walls and paths, or by lacing water troughs on the return pipes, and the temperature should range from 65° by day to 70° or more with sun heat. After the fruit has set, the oliage should be refreshed and cleansed by the daily use of the syringe or garden engine. When the fruit has stoned-that is, as soon as the kernels have been formed—the temperature should be raised to about 65° as a minimum, and to 70°, with 75° by sun heat, as a maximum. Water must now be copiously supplied to the border, and air admitted in abundance, but cold draughts which favour the attack of mildew must be avoided. After the end of April little fire heat is required. When the fruit begins to ripen, syringing must be discontinued till the crop is gathered, after which the syringe must be again occasionally used. If the leaves should happen to shade the fruit, not only during the ripening process but at any time after the stoning period, they should be gently turned aside, for, in order that the fruit may acquire good colour and flavour, it should be freely exposed to light and air when ripening; it will bear the direct rays of the sun, even if they should rise to 100°, but nectarines are much more liable to damage than peaches. The trees often suffer from mildew, which is best prevented by keeping the borders of the peach house clear and sufficiently moist and the house well ventilated, and if it should appear the trees should be sprayed with 1 oz. potassium sulphide dissolved in 3 gallons of water. Care must be taken in using this fungicide not to wet the painted wood, as it is sure to become discoloured.

Peaches and nectarines are frequently cultivated in well-drained pots, and are then usually trained as pyramids, and in some cases as half-standards. The potting must be done very firmly, using turfy loam with which a little mortar rubble has been mixed. The trees are to be top-dressed from time to time with well-decayed manure and turfy loam, and considerable space must be left in the pots for this and the watering.

The following are some of the best peaches and nectarines, arranged in the order of the times of their ripening:—

PEACHAM, HENRY (c. 1576–c. 1643), English writer, was the son of Henry Peacham, curate of North Mimms, Hertfordshire, and author of a book on rhetoric called the Garden of Rhetoric (1577). The elder Peacham became in 1597 rector of Leverton, Lincolnshire. The son was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1594–1595 and M A. in 1598. He was for some time a schoolmaster at Wyrnondham, Norfolk, but settled in London in 1612, earning his living as tutor to young men preparing for the universities. His first book was Graphice (1606), a treatise on pen and water-colour drawing, which, as The Gentleman's Exercise, passed through three editions. The years 1613–1614 he spent abroad, part of the time as tutor to the three young sons of Thomas Howard (1585–1646), earl of Arundel, and partly on his own account. He travelled in Italy, France, Westphalia and the Netherlands. The table of Sir John Ogle, English governor of Utrecht, was, he says, a “ little academy, ” where he met soldiers and scholars of all nationalities. When he returned to London he was accused of libel on the king. Incriminating papers had been discovered in the house of Edmond Peacham, rector of Hinton Saint George, who, on being charged with an attack on the king denied the authorship, stating that they were written by a namesake, “ a divine, a scholar and a traveller.” 'The change was, however, easily rebutted. Peacham had many friends in London, among them Thomas Dowland the musician, Inigo jones, and Edward Wright the mathematician. In 1622 appeared Peacham's magnum opus, the Compleat Gentleman. Enlarged editions appeared in 1626 and 1627. The 1627 edition was reprinted in 1634, and a third, with additional notes on blazonry by Thomas Blount (1617–1679), appeared in 1661. The book is a text-book of manners and polite learning; it includes chapters on cosmography, geometry, poetry, music, antiquities, painting, the lives of the painters, the “art of limming” (Peacham himself was a proficient engraver), and the military art, including the order of “a maine battaile or pitched field in eight severall wayes.” The book differs from the Courtier of Castiglione, which had been the guide of an earlier generation. Peacham was a Cavalier, even an ardent polemist in the royal cause, but the central point of his book is a more or less Puritan sentiment of duty. In his later years Peacham was reduced to extreme poverty, and is said to have written children's books at a penny each. His last book was published in 1642, and it may be concluded that he died soon afterwards.

PEACOCK, SIR BARNES (1810–1890), English judge, was born in 1810, the son of Lewis Peacock, a solicitor. After practising as a special pleader, he was called to the bar in 1836, and in 1844 obtained great reputation by pointing out the flaw which invalidated the conviction of Daniel O'Connell and his fellow defendants. In 1852 he went to India as legal member of the governor-general's council. He here displayed great activity as a law reformer, but sometimes manifested too little consideration for native susceptibilities The legislative council was established soon after his arrival, and although no orator, he was so frequent a speaker that legislation enjoining councillors to deliver their speeches sitting was said to have been devised with the sole object of restraining him. As a member of Lord Dalhousie's council he supported the annexation of Oudh, and he stood by Lord Canning all through the Mutiny. In 1859 he became chief justice of the Supreme Court. He returned to England in 1870, and in 1872 was placed upon the judicial committee of the privy council, where his Indian experience rendered him invaluable. He died on the 3rd of December 1890.

PEACOCK, GEORGE (1791–1858), English mathematician, was born at Thornton Hall, Denton, near Darlington, on the 9th of April 1791. He was educated at Richmond, Yorkshire, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1809. He was second Wrangler in 1812 (Sir J. F. W. Herschel being senior), was elected fellow of his college in 1814, became assistant tutor in 1815 and full tutor in 1823. While still an undergraduate he formed a league with John Herschel and Charles Babbage, to conduct the famous struggle of “d-ism versus dot-age, ” which ended in the introduction into Cambridge of the continental notation in the infinitesimal calculus to the exclusion of the fluxional notation of Sir Isaac Newton. This was an important reform, not so much on account of the mere change of notation (for mathematicians follow J. L. Lagrange in using both these notations), but because it signified the opening to the mathematicians of Cambridge of the vast storehouse of continental discoveries. The analytical society thus formed in 1813 published various memoirs, and translated S. F. Lacroix's Differential Calculus in 1816. Peacock powerfully aided the movement by publishing in 1820 A Collection of Examples of the Application of the Diferential and Integral Calculus. In 1841 he published a pamphlet on the