76 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



calyx-cup and the color of the flesh' of the fruit is one of the distinguishing 

 features of peaches. Yellow-fleshed peaches develop from blossoms in 

 which the inside color of the calyx-cup is orange; white-fleshed peaches 

 develop from those in which the color is greenish or greenish-yellow some- 

 times approaching a very light orange easily distinguished from the dark 

 orange of the other group. Since the discovery of this correlation in the 

 Station orchards by Mr'. Charles Tubergen it has been in yearly use and 

 has enabled us to tell a year or two in advance the flesh-color of seedling 

 peaches, since the first peach-blossoms seldom set fruit. 



The fruits, however, furnish by far the best characters upon which 

 to found a classification of peaches. The simplest classification of peaches , 

 begins by separating them into smooth-skinned and pubescent sorts; each 

 of these divisions is redivided into clingstones and freestones; these four 

 groups may then be separated into yellow-fleshed, white-fleshed and 

 red-fleshed peaches; still further, most, not all, of the twelve groups made 

 in the first three divisions, separate into round, flat or beaked peaches. 

 These are the major characters of the fruits, little influenced by cultiva- 

 tion or environment, after which there are many minor characters such as 

 size, shape, color, quality and season, all very responsive to changed con- 

 ditions, that help to describe definitely the many varieties of Prunus 

 persica. The most variable of the minor characters is shape, aU peaches 

 tending to lose rotundity in southern climates and to become oblong and 

 beaked. The length and quantity of the pubescence on peaches vary 

 considerably in different soils — the warmer and lighter the soil, the less 

 pubescence. The skin adheres closely to the flesh in some varieties; in 

 others it is non-adherent. 



The characters found in the stones of the many species of Prunus 

 are of great value in determining species but they help but little in deter- 

 mining the horticultural varieties of any one species. The stones of the 

 peach do vary, however, very materially in size, shape, grooves and ridges, 

 pitting and in characteristics at base and apex. The color-plates in this 

 text illustrate these differences very well. One may generalize arid say 

 that the stones of the freestones are more deeply furrowed and that the 

 sides are smoother than in the clingstones. 



The characters of the peach are set forth on the opposite page by 

 reproducing a description as made at this Station in describing a variety 

 for The Peaches of New York. Such a description is, however, but a skele- 

 ton, as dead as dry bones, unless a living picture of the variety be made by 



