THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 247 



growing in New York. The fruit has two bad faults: The quahty is not 

 high — the flesh being coarse, juicy and insipid in flavor; and the peaches 

 bruise with the least possible handling so that they cannot be shipped to 

 advantage. On the Station grounds the pubescence, too, is so abundant 

 as to be objectionable. ]\Iamie Ross comes at a season when there are 

 many other good mid-season, white-fleshed peaches and may, therefore. 

 be thrown out of the list for this region. It is, as the color-plate shows, 

 a very handsome peach. 



Mamie Ross is probably a seedling of Chinese Cling. It originated 

 about 1 88 1 with Captain A. J. Ross, Dallas, Texas. The variet}' soon 

 attracted attention and neighbors began propagating it. Later, Mr. Ross' 

 brother named the peach after the originator's youngest daughter. In 

 1899, the American Pomological Society added the variety to its fruit-list. 



Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading to somewhat drooping, open-topped, hard\-, 

 productive; trunk thick, smooth; branches stockv-, smooth, reddish-bro-wTi with light 

 ash-gray; branchlets very long, with long intemodes, dark red with considerable olive- 

 jjeen, glossj-, smooth, glabrous, with numerous conspicuous, raised lenticels variable 

 in size. 



Leaves six and three-fourths inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, variable 

 in position, oval to obovate-lanceolate, thick, leathery; upper surface dark green, smooth 

 becoming rugose along the midrib; lower surface grayish-green; margin finely serrate, 

 tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, with none to five small, 

 globose and reniform, reddish-bro^-n glands variable in position. 



Flower-buds semi-hardy, obtuse to pointed, plump, heavily pubescent, free or 

 appressed; blossoms open early; flowers one and three-fourths inches across, pink, single; 

 pedicels verj' short, medium to thick, glabrous, green; cah-x-tube reddish-green at the 

 base, greenish-yeUow within, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes acute or obtuse, glabrous 

 within, heavily pubescent without; petals oval to obovate, entire except near the base, 

 tapering to narrow claws often red at the base; filaments one-half inch long, shorter than 

 the petals; pistil pubescent at the base, equal to the stamens in length. 



Fruit matures in earh- mid-season; two and one-half inches long, two and seven- 

 eighths inches wide, roundish-oval to oblong, often bulged on one side, compressed, 

 usually with sides equal; ca\'ity deep, abrupt, often marked vnth streaks of red; suture 

 variable in depth; apex small, mucronate, set in a slight depression; color pale yellowish- 

 cream, with more or less dull or bright red in which are splashes of darker red; pubescence 

 short, fine, thick; skin thin, tough, separates from the pulp; flesh white, streaked with 

 red near the pit, very juicy, string}% tender, melting, sweet or somewhat sprightly, 

 pleasantly flavored; good in quality; stone semi-cling or cHng, one and five-eighths inches 

 long, one inch wide, ovate to long-elliptical, plump, long-pointed, bulged on one side, 

 with pitted and grooved surfaces; ventral suture deeply grooved along the edges, na row, 

 winged ; dorsal suture grooved. 



