202 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



Society added Climax to its fruit-list in 1891 but dropped it in 1899, In 

 1909, however, the variety was replaced in the Society's catalog as a peach 

 of merit for the South. 



Tree small, vigorous, upright-spreading, round-topped, dense, productive; trunk 

 roughish; branches roughened by the lenticels, reddish-brown covered with gray; branchlets 

 very slender, long, with short intemodes, olive-green overspread v/ith darker red, smooth, 

 glabrous, with very few small, inconspicuous, raised lenticels. 



Leaves six inches long, one and three-eighths inches wide, flattened, lanceolate, thin, 

 leathery; upper surface dull, medium green, smooth; lower surface olive-green; margin 

 bluntly serrate, glandular; petiole three-eighths inch long, slender, glandless or with one 

 to four small, reniform glands usually at the base of the leaf. 



Flower-buds small and short, conical, plvtmp, pubescent, appressed; blooming season 

 late; flowers pale pink, one inch across; pedicels slender, glabrous, green; calyx-tube dotted 

 reddish-green, greenish-yellow within, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes acute or obtuse, 

 glabrous within, pubescent without, partly erect ; petals ovate or oval, tapering to narrow 

 claws whitish at the base; filaments shorter than the petals ; pistil shorter than the stamens. 



Fruit matures in mid-season; two and three-eighths inches long, two and one-eighth 

 inches thick, oval, but slightly compressed, with unequal sides; cavity ustially shallow 

 flaring, splashed with red; suture shallow, deepening toward the apex; apex conic, with 

 a long, swollen, often recurved tip; color greenish- white or creamy-white, occasionally 

 with a blush or faint mottlings of red toward the base; pubescence short, thick; skin thin, 

 adherent to the pulp; flesh white, stained with red near the pit, juicy, stringy, melting, 

 very sweet, mild; very good in quality; stone semi-free to free, one and one-fotirth inches 

 long, thirteen-sixteenths inch wide, oval, pltunp, bulged on one side, long-pointed at the 

 apex, with pitted and grooved, reddish-brown surfaces; ventral suture deeply furrowed 

 along the sides, narrow; dorsal suture grooved. 



CROSBY 



I. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 391, PI. Vni. 1891. 2. Ont. Fr. Exp. Sta. Rpt. 2:58. 1895. 3. Minn. Hort. 

 Soc. Rpt. 224 fig. 1896. 4. Ohio Hort. Soc. Rpt. 58, 59. 1896-97. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 21. 1897. 

 6. Mich. Sta. Bui. 169:211. 1899. 7. Can. Hort. 23:379. 1900. 



Excelsior. 8. Am. Card. 12:61)1). 1891. g. Rural N. Y. 50:736. 1891. 10. Am.Gard. 13:47. 1892. 



Of the several virtues which entitlp Crosby to the esteem of fruit- 

 growers, possibly the most notable is hardiness in tree and bud so marked 

 that it is often called the " frost-proof " peach. It is doubtful, however, 

 whether it is hardier than other peaches of its kind as Chili, Smock and 

 Heath Cling. Besides hardiness, the trees have to recommend them 

 vigor, health and productiveness, the latter character offset somewhat 

 by small size. The quality of the fruit is excellent. The rich, yellow, 

 freestone flesh is delicious to the taste either as a dessert or as a ciilinary 

 fruit. In these days of showy fruits, however, Crosby falls far short in 

 appearance, the peaches running small, being somewhat irregular and 



