THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 309 



skin tender, slightly sour; flesh greenish-yellow becoming yellowish, tender, sweet 

 near the surface but sour next the pit, mild; good; stone clinging, seven-eighths inch 

 by five-eighths inch in size, irregular-oval, with roughened and thickly pitted surfaces; 

 ventral suture prominent, seldom winged; dorsal suture with a narrow, shallow groove. 



PEACH 



Prunus domestica 



I. N. E. Farmer Diet. 266. 1797. 2. Prince Treat. Hort. 27. 1828. 3. Prince Pont. Man. 

 2:106. 1832. 4. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 307. 1845. 5- Horticulturist 1:113, 114 fig. 34, 147. 

 1846. 6. Poiteau Pom. Franc. 1:1846. 7. Thomas Am. Fruit Cult. 335, 336 fig. 262. 1849. 

 8. Horticulturist 6:132. 1851. 9. Elliott Fr. Book 422. 1854. 10. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 367. 

 1857. ii. Hooper W. Fr. Book 250. 1857. 12. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 86. 1862. 13. Hogg Fruit 

 Man. 375. 1866. 14. Mas Le Verger 6:73, PI. XXXVII. 1866-73. *5- Pom. France 7: No. 7. 

 1871. 16. Card. Chron. N. S. 17:144. 1882. 17. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 466. 1883. 18. Wickson 

 Col. Fruits 353. 1891. 19. Wash. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 136. 1893. 20. Guide Prat. 156, 361. 1893. 

 21. Cat. Cong. Pom. France 462 fig. 1906. 



Apricot Plum 5 incor. Caledonian 15, 20. Calvels Pfirschenpfiaume 14, 20. D'Abricot (of 

 Streets of Paris) 20. Duane's Purple 5 incor, 6, n. Howell's Large 15, 20, 21. Jenkin's Imperial 

 15, 20. Large Peach 16. Large Peach Plum 3. Nectarine 15, 20. Nectarine Rouge 21. Peach 

 15,20. Peach Plum 3, 5, 14, 20. Peach Plum 7, 8, 9, 10, n, 12, 17. Peche 14, 15, 20, 21. Peche 

 de Calvel 20. Prune Peche 3, 7, 9, 10, 14, 18. Prune Peche 4, 5, 6, 20. Prune-PGche De Calvel 14. 

 Reine-Claude De Berger 13, 16. Rothe Nektarine 15, ?2o. 



Peach, the largest early plum, is not high in quality but is justly 

 esteemed where it can be grown for its earliness, large size and handsome 

 appearance. Unfortunately this variety is capricious beyond most other 

 plums as to climate and soils and refuses to thrive unless its needs are 

 very well supplied in the matter of environment. In America it seems 

 to find congenial soil and climate only on the Pacific Coast, and even then 

 refuses to bear well except on strong, rich soils. In New York, even when 

 grown upon soils similar to those upon which it does well elsewhere, the 

 fruits are few and lacking in quality, though the trees are large, vigorous 

 and about all that could be desired in a good plum tree. It may be pos- 

 sible to grow Peach in favorable locations in the East; in which case, a 

 plum of its appearance and quality, coming as early in the season as it 

 ripens, would make a most desirable addition to the list of plums. From 

 its behavior elsewhere the situation that would suit it best in New York 

 is a sunny exposure with a warm, rich, clay loam. 



The origin of the Peach is unknown. Poiteau was unable to find 

 any reference to it in the Eighteenth Century European literature and 

 thought, therefore, that it must have been unknown to this period. Samuel 

 Deane mentions a Peach plum in New England in 1797. It is doubtful, 



