THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 201 



Leaves five and three-fourths inches long, one and five-eighths inches wide, folded 

 upward, oval-lanceolate, medium in thickness and toughness; upper surface dark green, 

 rugose along the midrib; lower surface dull grayish-green; margin finely serrate, tipped 

 with dark red glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, with two to six rather large, reni- 

 foi-m, greenish-yellow, dark-tipped glands variable in position. 



Flower-buds usually obtuse, plump, very pubescent, somewhat appressed; blooming 

 season early; flowers ])ale pink, darker along the edges, one and one-fourth inches across, 

 often in twos; pedicels short, glabrous, green; calyx-tube dull, dark reddish-green, light 

 yellow within, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes acute, glabrous within, pubescent without; 

 petals oval or ovate, tapering to small, narrow claws tinged with red at the base; filaments 

 one-half inch long, usually shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent at the ovary, often 

 longer than the stamens. 



Fruit matures in mid-season; two and one-half inches long, two and three-fourths 

 inches wide, roimdish-oval, bulged at one side, compressed, with unequal halves; cavity 

 narrow, abrupt, tinged with red, with tender skin; suture shallow but deepening at the 

 apex; apex roundish or pointed, with a mucronate tip; color greenish- white changing to 

 creamy-white, blushed with red, mottled and striped with darker red ; pubescence very short, 

 thin; skin thin, tough, separates from the pulp; flesh greenish-white or whitish, stained 

 with red at the pit, juicy, tender, melting, subacid, sprightly; fair to possibly good in 

 quality; stone free, one and one-fourth inches long, fifteen-sixteenths inch wide, oval, 

 I)lump, abruptly pointed, with purplish-brown, pitted surfaces; ventral suture deeply 

 furrowed along the sides, winged near the base, rather wide; dorsal suture deeply grooved, 

 wing-like. 



CLIMAX 

 i.Am.Pom.Soi.Cat.44. 1891. 2. Tex. Sla. Bui. 3g:>i04. 1S96. 3. Glen St. Mary Cai. 1 1. igoo- 

 4. Fla. Sia. Bui. 73:143- 1904. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 36. 1909. 



Climax is a honey-sweet, freestone peach supposedly adapted only 

 to the far south. The trees on the grounds of this Station seem as hardy 

 as the average and are as productive. Whether or not the peaches are 

 as large and as attractive here as in Florida, where the variety is a com- 

 mercial sort, we cannot say but certain it is, Climax has no commercial 

 value in New York. The peaches are small, unattractive in color, drop 

 badly, are disfigured by peach-scab and have only honeyed sweetness to 

 recommend them. We figure and describe the variety in full only to 

 show that honey-fleshed peaches can be grown this far north and to call 

 attention to the possibility and desirability of using peaches of this stock 

 in breeding to improve the quahty or give new flavors to northern peaches. 

 It would, too, give pleasant variety and add quality to the home orchard. 



Climax is a seedling of Honey but neither the date of origin nor the 

 name of the originator is known. The variety was introduced by G. L. 

 Taber, Glen Saint Mary, Florida, in 1886. The American Pomological 



