THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 23I 



Fruit matures in early mid-season; two and one-fouith inches long, two and one-half 

 inches wide, round-oblate, compressed, the halves usually unequal; cavity deep, abrupt, 

 often tinged with red; suture shallow, deepening toward the apex; apex roundish, with 

 a mucronate tip; color creamy-white, blushed with dull, dark red and mottled with splashes 

 of brighter red; pubescence heavy; skin tough; flesh white, stained red near the pit, juicy, 

 tender and melting, sweet; good in quality; stone semi-free to free, one and one-fourth 

 inches long, fifteen-sixteenths inch wide, oval or obovate, not bulged, slightly elongated 

 toward the base, plump, short-pointed at the apex, with grooved and pitted surfaces; 

 ventral suture winged, of medium width, deeply grof)\-ed along the edges; dorsal suture 

 deeply grooved. 



IMPERIAL 



I. Lrt. .S7(i. B»/. 27:94;,. 1894. 2. Tex. Sla. Bill. 3g:X[<). 1896. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 22. 1897. 

 4. Alii. Sla. Bui. ii?:.^"?. i^oi. 5. Flu. Sta. Bui. 73: 148, Pis. 3 &• 4. 1904. 6. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 

 37. 1909. 7. Ala. Sta. Bid. 156:133. 191 1. 



Of the several honey-flavored peaches fruiting on the Station grounds, 

 Imperial is probably the best. The fruit is not easily distinguished in 

 appearance -from that of Climax, at least by those unfamiliar with southern 

 peaches, and is also rather closely allied to Honey in outward character but 

 has a somewhat distinct flavor in which it surpasses Climax and Honey. 

 It differs from both, too, in time of ripening. The peaches of this, as of 

 other honey-flavored sorts, drop badly as they mature. It is doubtful 

 if we shall ever grow pure-bred peaches of the Honey type in New York 

 for the markets, but Imperial, at least, is worth a place in every home 

 orchard where it does not have to brave too great a degree of cold; and 

 peach-breeders should seize the opportunity to cross it with our less richly 

 flavored northern varieties. 



Imperial is a seedling of Honey grown in 1890 by G. L. Taber, Glen 

 Saint ]\Iar>', Florida. This variety has been much confused with White 

 Imperial, a sort grown in New York many years ago but long since out of 

 cultivation. Pomologists frequently list White Imperial as a synonym 

 of Imperial, giving the origin as New York, when the variety in mind is 

 the true Imperial of southern origin. Imperial was listed in the American 

 Pomological Society's catalog in 1897 but was dropped in 1899. It 

 appears again, however, in the Society's catalog in 1909 under the name 

 Imperial with White Imperial incorrectly given as a synonym. 



Tree medium in size or small, upright-spreading, round-topped, productive; trunk 

 thick, rough; branches stocky, roughened, reddish-brown intermingled more or less with 

 ash-gray; branchlets slender, often rebranching, long, with intemodes dark pinkish-red 

 mingled with varying shades of olive-green, and with conspicuous, numerous, raised 

 lenticels. 



