THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



261 



Chinese Flat, 9. Prince Treat. Hort. 16, 17, 1828. 10. Kenrick Am. Orch. 225, 226. 1832. 

 nat Peach 0} China. 11. Litimey Guide Orch. 2^7, 24.8. 1831. 12. Horticulturist 1:383, 3S4, fig. 92. 

 1846-47. 13. pia, sta. Bui. 62:512, 513. 1902. 



Piatt Pfirsich. 14. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 410. 1889. 



For the history and a discussion of the horticiilttiral characters of 

 Peento, the reader is referred to page io8. The variety is too tender to 

 cold to be grown in New York; in fact it succeeds only in Florida and the 

 warmest parts of the other Gulf States. The American Pomological 

 Society listed Peento in its fruit-catalog in 1889. The following descrip- 

 tion, as it appHes to the tree, has been compiled: 



Tree vigorous, open-topped, too tender for the North, variable in productiveness; 

 leaves mature late, four and one-half inches long, one and seven-sixteenths inches wide, 

 oblong-oval, thin, leathery; upper surface light olive-green, smooth; lower surface grajdsh- 

 green; margin coarsely serrate, tipped with dark glands; petiole with two or three reni- 

 form glands of medium size, gray or greenish-yellow, usually at the base. 



Fruit matures early; one and three-eighths inches long, two and seven-sixteenths 

 inches wide, strongly oblate; cavity shallow, very wide, flaring, twig-marked; suture 

 deep, wide, extending two-thirds aroimd the fruit; apex depressed, set in a large, wide, 

 flaring basin; color creamy-yellow, mottled and deUcately pencilled with red, often 

 blushed toward the apex; pubescence short, thick; skin thick, tough, nearly free; flesh 

 white, stained red at the stone, juicy, stringy, tender and melting, sweet, nuld, with an 

 almond-like flavor; very good in quality; stone clings, red, one-half inch long, fifteen- 

 sixteenths inch wide. Strongly oblate, with corrugated surfaces; ventral suture very deep 

 at the edges, narrow at the base, becoming wide at the apex; dorsal suture a wide, 

 deep groove, merging into a line at the apex. 



PROLIFIC 



i. Ga. Sta. Bid. 42:240. 1898. 



New Prolific. 2. Col. 0. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 32. 1892. 3. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 190. 

 1895. 4. Ohio Hort. Soc. Rpt. 59. 1896-97. S- ^ich. Sta. Bui. 169:221. 1899. 6. Budd-Hansen 

 Am. Hort. Man. 2:352. 1903. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 38. 1909. 



Prolific was heralded a quarter-century ago as one of the great 

 acquisitions to the peach-flora of the cotintry. Time has not dealt kindly 

 with the variety and it is doubtful if it is as popular now as it was a few 

 years after its introduction. The trees are very satisfactory, excelHng most 

 of their orchard-associates in vigor, size, health, hardiness and productive- 

 ness but the peaches fall below the mark in several characters. The fruits 

 are of but medium size and not tmcommonly attractive in color, though 

 handsome enough, but too poor in quality to rate high among the peaches 

 of its season which is a few days before Elberta. The flesh is yellow, firm, 

 dry and little attacked by rot. With the qualities just named, the variety 



