248 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



MAY LEE 



I. Del. Sla. Rpt. 13:105. 1901. 2. Stark Bros. Oil. lig. 1904. 3. Ibid. 62 fig. 4, 63. 1910. 



May Lee is a very early white-fleshed, clingstone, pink-cheeked peach 

 introduced to rival Alexander, Triumph and other extra early sorts. It 

 fails, on the Station grounds at least, because the peaches run small, the 

 flesh clings too tenaciously and the stones crack. Neither is the fruit 

 attractive in color nor high in quality. It may be as good in quality as 

 Alexander or Triumph- but is no better. The variety is but doubtfully 

 worth planting in New York. 



May Lee originated with E. W. Kirkpatrick, McKinney, Texas, from 

 a seed of Mamie Ross planted in 1896. 



Tree large, spreading, low-growing, very productive; trunk thick, smooth; branches 

 stocky, smooth, reddish-brown with light ash-gray; branchlets slender, often incHned 

 to rebranch, medium to long, with intemodes dark pinkish-red intermingled with olive- 

 green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with nimierous conspicuous, raised lenticels medium 

 in size. 



Leaves six and one-half inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, flattened 

 or curled downward, oval to obovate-lanceolate, rather thick, leathery- ; upper surface 

 dark green, smooth becoming rugose along the midrib; margin crenate, tipped with small, 

 reddish glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to five large, reni- 

 form glands variable in color and position. 



Flower-buds hardy, small, short, conical, plump, very pubescent, appressed or free; 

 blossoms open in mid-season; flowers nearly two inches across, light pink; pedicels 

 very short, of medium thickness, glabrous; calyx-tube greenish-red, campanulate; calyx- 

 lobes obtuse, glabrous within, pubescent without; petals round or broadly ovate, notched 

 near the base, tapering to claws red at the base; filaments one-half inch long, shorter than 

 the petals; pistil pubescent at the ovary, longer than the stamens. 



Fruit matures early; about two and three-fourths inches in diameter, round, com- 

 pressed, bulged along one size, with unequal halves; cavity deep, narrow, abrupt; suture 

 variable in depth, extending beyond the tip; apex small, mucronate, depressed; color 

 creamy-white, usually with a blush toward the apex; tomentose; skin thick, tough, semi- 

 free to free; flesh white, ver>' juicy, tender and melting, sweet, mild, pleasantly flavored; 

 good in quality; stone semi-clinging to clinging, one and nine-sixteenths inches long, one 

 and one-eighth inches wide, oval, conspicuously winged, flattened near the base, with 

 deeph' grooved surfaces; ventral suture thin, winged, very deeply grooved along the edges; 

 dorsal suture grooved. 



MORRIS WHITE 



1. Proc. Nat. Con. Fr. Cr. 39, 51. 1848. 2. EUiott Fr. Book 276. 1854. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat_ 

 22. 1897. 4. Mich. Sla. Bui. 169:220. 1899. 5. Fulton Peach Cult. 190, 191. 1908. 



Whilr Rareripe. 6. Coxe Cull. Fr. Trees 222. 1817. 7. Prince Pom. Man. 2:26. 1832. 



