Peach Varieties, Botany and Classification 385 



growTi successfully as far north as Augusta, Georgia, where 

 the Peen-to, the progenitor of this race, proved a failure. 



Of this race, the Jewel and Waldo varieties are the most 

 important commercially. Some of the better-known va- 

 rieties, beside those named, include the Angel, Early Bid- 

 well, Late Bidwell, Hall, Suber, and others. 



South China race. 



This race began in the United States with the Honey ^ 

 variety, by which name the race is now commonly designated. 

 According to Onderdonk, Charles Downing of New York 

 obtained peach pits from China some time prior to 1855. 

 Reimer gives the year as 1846. From one of these the origi- 

 nal Honey tree grew. This one tree appears to have been 

 the sum-total of this effort. The original tree never fruited 

 with Downing, presumably because of the northern latitude 

 of his location, but a budded tree was sent to Henry Lyons, 

 of Columbia, South Carolina, about 1855. The variety was 

 placed in the hands of the late P. J. Berckmans, widely 

 known during his lifetime as a pomologist and nurseryman, 

 of Augusta, Georgia, and he began its dissemination in 1858. 

 The latitude of Augusta was too far north for this variety to 

 succeed, and it was not until it was grown in Florida and 

 southern Texas that its regional adaptability became appar- 

 ent. The varieties of this race, all of which trace to this 

 original Honey tree, are suited to conditions as far south as 

 are those of the Peen-to race, but they extend somewhat 

 farther north. 



Probably less than twenty varieties comprise all of this 

 race that have become prominent enough to be listed in 



1 Fla. Expt. Sta. BuU. 73, "The Honey Peach Group," by F. C. 

 Reimer. 



2c 



