92 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



This was the age of the classifier and other classifications, all similar 

 in plan, rapidly followed in England, France, Belgium and Germany. No 

 one at this time seems to have attempted a natural classification of 

 peaches. 



Of the nine leading American pomological writers of the Nineteenth 

 Centviry, Coxe, Prince, Cole, Hooper, Elliott and Barry either do not 

 attempt to classify or make but one or two simple divisions. Kenrick, 

 1832, follows Lindley in part but makes use of season in his classification. 

 Downing in his first edition, 1845, divides peaches into freestones with 

 pale flesh, freestones with deep yellow flesh and clingstones. This simple 

 arrangement by Downing is notable only because it is the first time color 

 of flesh is made use of as a distinguishing mark, the Europeans probably 

 not having done so because yellow-fleshed varieties are rare in Europe 

 whereas in America they are as common or more so than white-fleshed 

 sorts. Thomas, in 1846, did not classify but in later editions divided peaches 

 into two divisions, founded on adherence of flesh to the stone; two classes 

 for each division in accordance with color of flesh ; and three sections founded 

 on leaf-serrations and glands. 



These Nineteenth Century classifications are artificial. That is, 

 they single out a few points of resemblance and difference and arrange 

 varieties in accordance with them, convenience and facility of use being the 

 controlling principles. They are natural to a degree, however, because 

 varieties agreeing in one point of structure commonly agree in other char- 

 acters. With the peach, more than in the artificial classification of most 

 other fruits, the characters are readily distinguished and are stable. Yet 

 most English pomologies now arrange varieties of peaches alphabetically, 

 while the American texts do the same or use the pseudo-natural system 

 of Onderdonk. His classification we are about to discuss. The early 

 artificial arrangements failed to stand the test of time because classifiers 

 could not agree upon any one arrangement and added confusion by the 

 multiplicity of them; and, because the new varieties of the last half-century, 

 coming in great numbers, are so poorly described that the great majority 

 of them could not be classified from the data at hand. 



In 1887 Gilbert Onderdonk,' a special agent of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, published a natural classification of peaches.^ 



' For a brief history of the Ufe and pomological work of Gilbert Onderdonk, the reader is referred to 

 The Plums of New York, page 392. 



2 U.S. D. A. Rpt. 648-651. 1887. 



