194 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



Leaves five and seven-eighths inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, folded 

 upward, oval to obovate-lanceolate; upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface light 

 grayish-green; margin finely serrate, tipped with dark red glands; petiole one-fourth inch 

 long, with thr ee to five renif orm glands medium in size and variable in position and color. 



Flower-buds oval, pointed, plump, heavily pubescent, appressed; blossoms open in 

 mid-season; flowers one and one-fourth inches across, pink; pedicels short, glabrous, pale 

 green; calyx-tube dull reddish-green, speckled, yellowish-green within, campanidate, 

 glabrous; calyx-lobes short, acute to obtuse, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without; 

 petals oval to ovate, with distinct notches near the base, tapering to narrow, white claws 

 of medium length; filaments three-eighths inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent 

 near the base, shorter than the stamens. 



Fruit matures early; about two and one-fourth inches in diameter, round-oval, com- 

 pressed, with unequal sides, bulged near the apex; cavity abrupt or flaring, tinged with 

 pink and with tender skin; suture shallow, becoming deeper at the cavity; apex roundish 

 or depressed, with a somewhat pointed or mucronate tip; color creamy-white more or less 

 overspread with light red, with splashes of darker red; pubescence very thick, short; skin 

 thin, tough, adherent to the pulp; flesh white, red at the pit, juicy, tender, sweet, mild, 

 pleasant flavored; very good in quality; stone nearly free, about one and one-half inches 

 long, one inch wide, oval, plump, with thickly-pitted surfaces; ventral suture deeply grooved 

 along the edges, thick, furrowed and winged; dorsal suture deeply grooved. 



CHAIRS 



I. Mich. Sta. Bui. 169:209. 1899. 2. Rural N. Y. 59:642 fig. 236. 1900. 3. Budd-Hansen Am. 

 Hort. Man. 2:340. 1903. 



Chairs' Choice. 4. N. C. Sta. Rpt. 11:108. 1889. 5. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 200. 1913. 



Chair's Choice. 6. Col. O. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 151. 1893. 7. III. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 166. 1895. 8. Ibid. 

 26. 1899. 



Chair Choice. 9. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 44. 1891. 



Chairs is a select fruit in the Crawford group, in its turn the most 

 select of the several groups of peaches. In quality Chairs is unapproach- 

 able by varieties outside of its own family and is not siorpassed by any 

 within its group. The variety was at one time a standard late, yeUow- 

 fieshed, freestone, market peach competing in popularity with Late Craw- 

 ford over which it often held ascendency because less subject to brown-rot. 

 The coming of the showier and more productive but less well-flavored 

 varieties of the Elberta type has driven the Crawford group from' the 

 markets and Chairs is now known only in collections where it will long be 

 treasured for its delectable quality. Unproductiveness and capriciousness 

 in soil and climate, faults of all Crawford-like peaches, are marked in 

 Chairs. The fruits are usually larger than the specimens shown in the 

 accompanying illustration. 



Chairs originated about 1880 in the orchard of Franklin Chairs, Anne 



