400 



REPORT OF OFFICE f)F EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



In a special report on peach culture in the extreme Southwest by 

 G. Onderdonk, and published by this Department in 1887," peaches are 

 classified into five races, viz: (1) Persian, (2) Northern Chinese, (3) 

 Spanish, (4) Southern Chinese, (5) Peen-to (fig. 8), these geograph- 

 ical names representing the parts of the world in which the race was 

 supposed to have originated or to have reached its greatest develop- 

 ment. R. H. Price, of the Texas Exoeriment Station, practically 



adopts this classifi- 

 cation,'' giving de- 

 (^\ if'/«,"5i\% ^')l /??///(( \>% ^SfMV.y^V scriptions and illus- 

 trations of a large 

 number of varieties 

 belonging to each 

 of these different 

 races. 



In the northern 



Fig. S.- Seeds of different types of peaches: a, Peen-to; 6, South i i i £ i, 



Chinese (Honey); c, Spanish or Indian (Texas); d, North China pcach belt of the 

 (Chinese Cling); e, Persian (Old Mixon Free). United States varie- 



ties belonging to the Persian race are chiefly grown, while in the 

 extreme soutli of the United States varieties of the Peen-to race are 

 the most successful. Between these two extremes the South China, 

 Spanish, and North China races succeed. The following descriptions 

 of the different races, largely taken from Price's account, will serve 

 to point out the difl'crences between them, though a large number of 

 varieties of peaches can not be referred with certainty to any one of 

 the races here given. 



1. PEEN-TO (PRUNUS PLATYCARPA). 



Varieties of this group (figs. 8a, 9) can be successfully culti- 

 vated only in su})tropical climates, succeeding best in tins coimtry 

 in the States of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the 

 coast regions of Texas. The Peen-to variety, which is the parent 

 of this race in America, was first grown in the South by P. J. Berck-. 

 mans, of Augusta, Ga., in, 1869, from seed obtained from Australia. 

 According to II. II. Ilumc,'^ some twenty-two or twenty-three varie- 

 ties of this grou]) have originated in Florida, but a much less number 

 is now in cultivation, many of the earlier fruits being superseded by 

 better later varieties. This peach, with its ofl'spiiug. thrives farther 

 south than any of the other races. 



Trees of this group are vigorous, upright in habit, prolific, with 

 willow-hke branches and long, narrow leaves. The fruit of the Peeii- 



« Report U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture, 18S7, p. ()48. 

 ft Texas Sh). l^ul. .39. 

 c Florida Sta. Bui. 62. 



