THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 77 



filling out and covering the skeleton with ample remarks made as the 

 describer studies the plant in the field. 



A more detailed discussion of the horticultural and botanical characters 

 of the peach logically follows here. 



PRUNUS PERSICA Stokes. 



1. P. Persica Stokes Bot. Mai. Med. 3:100. 1812. 



2. P. Persica var. vulgaris Maximowicz Mel. Biol. 11:668. 1883. 



3. P. Persica var. necturina Ma.ximowicz 1. c. 669. (nectarine) 



4. P. Persica var. laevis Gray 



5. P. Persica var. nucipersica Dippel Handb. Laub. 3:606. 1893. (nectarine) 



6. P. Persica var. platycarpa Bailey Cyc. Am. Hort. 1456. 1901. (Flat Peach, Peento) 



7. Amygdalus Persica Linnaeus Sp. PL Ed. 1:472. 1753. 



8. A. Persica var. nucipersica Linnaeus 1. c. 676. (nectarine) 



9. A. nectarina Alton Hort. Kew Ed. 2, 3:194. 1811. (nectarine) 



10. A. Nuci-persica Reichenbach Fl. Germ. Exc. 647. 1832. (nectarine) 



11. /I. /omi Dietrich 5yK. W. 3:42. 1852. (nectarine) 



12. Persica vulgaris Miller Card. Diet. Ed. 8: No. i. 1768. 



13. P. nucipersica Borkhausen Forslb. Beschrb. 205. 1790. (nectarine) 



14. P. laevis De Candolle Fl. Fran. 4:487. 1805. (nectarine) 



15. P. platycarpa Decaisne Jard. Fr. Mus. (Pechers) 42. 1872-75. (Flat Peach, Peento) 



Tree low, attaining a height of thirty feet, diffuse, open-headed, broad-topped, often 

 without a central leader; trunk at maturity sometimes a foot in diameter; bark dark 

 reddish-brown, in old trees rough and scaly; branches spreading, slender and sometimes 

 drooping; twigs round, rather slender, glabrous, glossy green changing to shades of red, 

 with numerous, large or small, conspicuous, usually raised lenticels. 



The leaves are alternate, simple, four to seven inches long, one to two inches wide. 

 broad-lanceolate or more often oblong-lanceolate; upper surface dark green, smooth, dull 

 or shining, some rugose along the midrib; lower surface paler, with Httle or no pubescence; 

 ape.x long-tapering, base abrupt or acute; margins coarsely or finely serrate, or crenate, 

 sometimes doubly toothed, teeth tipped with glands or sometimes glandless; petioles 

 stout, from a quarter-inch to an inch long, grooved, glandless or more often with from 

 one to eight globose or reniform glands, sometimes mixed, a part of which may be on the 

 base of the leaf. 



The flowers develop from scaly buds on the wood of the previous season; flower-buds 

 plump, conical or obtuse, free or appressed and usually appearing before the leaves; flowers 

 of two distinct sizes, with some intermediates, the smaller size ranging under an inch in 

 diameter, the larger, an inch and a half or more; the floral color ranges from an occasional 

 pure white through shades of pink to deep red; fragrant and always pleasantly so; pedicels 

 very short, sometimes seemingly wanting, glabrous, green; caljTc-tube urn-shaped, usually- 

 smooth but sometimes pubescent without, green overlaid with red outside, greenish- 

 yellow or dark orange within; calyx-lobes five in nimiber, short, broad, glabrous within, 

 pubescent without; petals ovate, five in ntmiber, rounded at the apex which is sometimes 

 notched, tapering to a claw, sometimes notched at the base; stamens twenty to thirty, 

 about one-half inch long, slender, distinct, usually colored; anthers yellow; ovary sessile. 



