THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK ' 91 



depth. Prunus minutiflora Engelman, the "Texas almond," is found in 

 southwestern Texas, a shrub which, like the former species and the one 

 following, is dioecious, a marked and unique peculiarity of these three 

 species. The " Mexican almond," Prunus microphylla Hemsley, is found 

 in the high mountain region of Mexico. Prunus havardii Wight, is known 

 only in a restricted region in western Texas. The last two species are so 

 little known that one cannot even surmise whether they may have 

 horticultural possibilities. 



, HORTICULTURAL CLASSIFICATIONS OF THE PEACH 



The opening years of the Nineteenth Century mark the first attempts 

 at classifying peaches. By 1818 as many as three classificatory schemes 

 had been proposed, all being modifications of the same general arrange- 

 ment. July 7, 1818, John Robertson read a paper on classifying peaches 

 and nectarines before the Horticultural Society of London. Later, this 

 was printed in the Transactions of the Society,^ together with a classifi- 

 cation by M. Poiteau from the Bon Jardinier and another by Count Lelieur 

 from his Pomone Francaise. In January, 1824, George Lindley read before 

 the same society a classification which was but an extension of the older 

 arrangements.^ 



Robertson separated peaches into true peaches and nectarines and 

 these in turn into Classes, Divisions and Sub-divisions. He founded the 

 two classes on the presence or absence of glands; for each of his classes 

 he made two divisions distinguished by the size and color of the flowers; 

 each of the four divisions is once redivided into a sub-division in which 

 the flesh parts from the stone and another in which the flesh adheres to the 

 stone. The two French writers use the same characters but found their 

 second division on the adherence or non-adherence of the flesh to the 

 stone; their third on the size of the flower but making three partitions as 

 to size; and their fourth on the presence or absence of glands which they 

 divide into globose and reniform. Lindley created three classes dependent 

 on the presence or absence and the character of the glands and the char- 

 acter of the serrations; three divisions of each class in accordance as to 

 whether the flowers are large, medium-sized or small; two sub-divisions of 

 each division to agree with the presence or absence of down; and for each 

 sub-division two sections, one for clingstones and one for melters. 



1 Trans. Hort. Soc. Land. 3:380-387. 1820. 

 ^Ibid. 5:525-560. 1824. 



