276 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



characters pleasing in every respect. The flavor is a pleasing mingling of 

 sweet and sour not found in many other peaches so late in the season. 

 The appearance of the peach is as alluring as the taste. The color-plate 

 shows the variety almost perfectly in color and shape but the peaches as 

 depicted are rather smaller than the average. These late, white-fleshed 

 peaches now seldom sell well, usually reaching the markets in poor con- 

 dition, but they are choice fruits for home use and for this purpose Stevens 

 should be planted in every home orchard. The variety has the reputa- 

 tion of being hardy in both wood and buds. 



Stevens originated about 1858 on the farm of B. Stevens, Morris- 

 town, New Jersey. Its parentage is unknown. It was listed in the 

 American Pomological Society's catalog in 1889 as Stevens Rareripe. 

 Later the name was shortened to Stevens in accordance with the Society's 

 rules of nomenclature. 



Tree vigorous, upright-spreading, with the lower branches indined to droop, pro- 

 ductive; trunk of medium thickness, rough; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown 

 mingled with light ash-gray; branchlets thick, dark reddish-brown with but little green, 

 glossy, smooth, with numerous large and small lenticels. 



Leaves six inches long, one and five-eighths inches wide, folded upward and slightly 

 recurled, oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dark green, glossy, rugose 

 along the midrib; lower surface light green; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish- 

 brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to six small, reniform 

 glands usually at the base of the leaf; flower-buds intermediate in size and length, conical 

 to pointed, somewhat appressed, pubescent; flowers small. 



Fruit matures late; about two and eleven-sixteenths inches in diameter, round to 

 round-oval, with nearly equal sides; cavity deep, wide, flaring to abrupt; suture medium 

 to deep, often extending beyond the tip; apex roimdish, with a strongly mucronate and 

 recurved tip; color greenish-white overlaid with attractive purplish-red, often mottled 

 or splashed with darker red; pubescence short, fine; skin thick, tough, adherent to the 

 pulp; flesh white, tinted with red near the pit and reddish imdemeath the deepest surface 

 blush, juicy, coarse, sweet, sprightly; good in quality; stone nearly free, one and five- 

 eighths inches long, one and one-eighth inches wide, obovate, flattened at the base, plump, 

 with grooved surfaces; ventral suture medium to deeply grooved along the edges, inter- 

 mediate in width, furrowed; dorsal suture deeply grooved, winged. 



STUMP 



I. Tex. Sta. Bui. 39:817. 1896. 2. Am. Pom. 6'oc. Cat. 22. 1897. 3. Mich. .S/a. Bui. 169:227 

 1899. 4. Budd-Hansen /Im. liort. Man. 2:357. 1903. 



Stump the World. 5. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 299. 1854. 6. Elliott Fr. Book 304. 1859. 7. Uorti- 

 culturist 14:106, 107, PI. 1859. 8. Am. Pom. .Snc. Cat. 80. 1862. 9. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 193. 1865. 

 10. Hogg Fruit Man. 232. 1866. 11. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 633. 1869. 12. Ga. Sta. Bui. 42:242. 

 1898. 13. Fulton Peach Cut.. 189, 190. 1908. 



