Peach Varieties, Botany and Classification 383 



ripen before Elberta and those ripening with or later than 

 that variety. A great number of varieties are listed and 

 grouped on the basis of this classification. 



The first, and in fact the only, really constructive effort to 

 work out a classification of peach varieties along natural 

 lines of demarcation was made by Gilbert Onderdonk who 

 now for more than sixty-five years has lived in southern 

 Texas, going there from New York as a young man but little 

 more than twenty years of age. He was over eighty years 

 of age when the picture shown in Plate XXVI was taken. 

 This classification made by him was published as a part of 

 the report of the pomologist in the Annual Report of the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture (now the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture) for 1887, Onderdonk then being a 

 special agent for the Division of Pomology. 



In his observation in Texas of the behavior of peaches, 

 particularly of trees which grew from pits carried into the 

 state from different parts of the North, Onderdonk became 

 impressed with the fact that differences existed, essentially 

 basic in character, and which were correlated with the sources 

 of origin. This view was strengthened when he observed 

 that all the trees brought from the North into southern 

 Texas, as well as those that grew from northern pits, made 

 only a lingering growth and died after a few years without 

 producing fruit in any quantity. Coupled with these 

 observations was the discovery that trees coming from 

 sources in Mexico not only lived and thrived, but produced 

 fruit regularly and abundantly. 



In due course Onderdonk assembled and grew for study 

 peach trees or peach pits from all possible sources. It is un- 

 necessary here to give in detail the course of his investigations 

 further than to state tliat as a result of his studies he divided 



