226 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



surface grayish-green; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole 

 one-half inch long, with two to seven small, mostly reniform, reddish-brown glands usually 

 at the base of the leaf. 



Flower-buds tender, mediimi to small, short, conical or pointed, pliunp, pubescent, 

 free; blossoms appear in mid -season; flowers a faded pink, white at the center of the petals, 

 about three-fourths inch acrofs; pedi-^els short, medium to thick, glabrous, green; calyx- 

 tube reddish-green; calyx-lobes short, broad, obture, glabrous within, pubescent without; 

 petals roundish-oval, tapering to short, broad claws occasionally with a red base; filaments 

 one-fourth inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent near the base, longer than 

 the stamens. 



Fruit matures very late; two and one-eighth inches long, two and one-fourth inclies 

 wide, round-oval, com_pressed and somewhat angular, with unequal sides; cavity variable 

 in depth and width, abrupt or flaring; suture shallow, extending beyond the apex; apex 

 ending in a swollen, pointed tip ; color creamy-white, blushed with red, splashed and mottled 

 with darker red; pubescence short, thick, fine; skin thin, adhering to the pulp; flesh white, 

 juicy, firm and meaty but tender, sweet or somewhat sprightly; good in qualitv; stone 

 clinging, one and one-fourth inches long, seven-eighths inch wide, oval, plump, flattened 

 and pointed toward the base, tapering to a short point at the apex, with dark brown, grooved 

 surfaces; ventral suture deep along the tides, thick, furrowed; dorsal suture grooved. 



HEATH FREE 



1. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 37. 1909. 2. Waugh Am. Peach Orck. 203. 1913. 



Kenrkk Heath. 3. Prince rrca/. //o/-/. 17. 1828. 4. Prince Pom. .Van. 2:30, 31. 1832. 5. Down- 

 ing Fr. Trees Am. 479. 1845. 6. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 78. 1862. 7. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 

 2:348. 1903. 



Heath. 8. Kenrick Am. Orch. 226, 227. 1832. 



Heath Free is now rarely planted, being replaced by better sorts — in 

 fact it was out of date a quarter-century ago when the American Pomo- 

 logical Society dropped it from its fruit-list. We can see no justification 

 of the Society's action in restoring the variety to its list ten years later. 

 The tree-characters of Heath Free seem to be, in the main, very good 

 but the peaches are not at all attractive in appearance and none too good 

 in quality — at best it is but a ctolinaiy sort. Possibly it is worth growing 

 under some conditions as a late, white-fleshed peach. 



Heath Free is another old variety, a native of New England. Kenrick, 

 one of the first American pomologists, received the variety from General 

 Heath, Roxbur>% Massachusetts, early in the Nineteenth Century. Later, 

 Kenrick sent it to Prince at Flushing, New York, who is credited with 

 having distributed it. The variety should not be confused with Heath 

 Cling. Ripening at the latter end of the peach-season, the term " Late " 

 is often attached to the name. In 1862 the American Pomological Societv 



