ALEXANDER
1. Cult. & Count. Gent. 38:598. 1873. 2. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 263, 264. 1874. 3. Gard. Mon. 17:367, 368. 1875. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 28. 1877. 5. Gard. Mon. 19:147, 303. 1877. 6. Hogg Fruit Man. 436. 1884. 7. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 424. 1886. 8. Tex. Sta. Bul. 39:809, figs. 5 & 9. 1896. 9. Ont. Fr. Exp. Sta. Rpt. 6:21 fig. 1899. 10. Fulton Peach Cult. 173. 1908. 11. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 198. 1913. 12. U. S. D. A. Plant Immigrants 117:958. 1916.
Alexander's Early. 13. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 75, 76. 1873. 14. Horticulturist 28:224. 1873.
For nearly a half-century Alexander has been one of the notable early peaches on this continent, hardiness and vigor of tree contributing with earliness to make the variety popular. Unfortunately, there are few fruit-characters to commend Alexander; the peaches run small, the flesh clings to the stone and is so tender that the two can be separated only with difficulty, and the quality is poor. Added to the defects of the fruit the trees have the grave fault of being unproductive. The fruits, too, are very susceptible to brown-rot but to offset this weakness, the trees are more resistant to leaf-curl than those of the average variety. Alexander has been more or less grown in every peach-region on this continent, sometimes attaining considerable commercial importance, but is now widely cultivated only on the Pacific Slope, and even here it is evidently destined to pass out before many years in the competition with newer and better sorts. It is often confused with Amsden though the two are quite distinct.
Alexander originated soon after the Civil War on the farm of O. A. Alexander, Mount Pulaski, Illinois. Since 1877 it has been on the fruit-list of the American Pomological Society. It has been the parent of a score or more of meritorious extra-early peaches.
ALEXANDER
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, unproductive; trunk stocky, smooth; branches reddish-brown overlaid with light ash-gray; branchlets medium to long, olive-green overlaid on the sunny side with dark red, smooth, glabrous, with conspicuous, large, raised lenticels.
Leaves six inches long, one and one-half inches wide, folded upward, oval-lanceolate, thin, leathery; upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface light grayish-green; margin finely serrate, tipped with dark red glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to four small, usually globose, greenish-yellow glands tipped with red, variable in position.
Flower-buds oblong-conic, pubescent, usually free; blooming season early; flowers pale pink, one and seven-sixteenths inches across, in well-distributed clusters; pedicels very short, thick, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube dull green, light yellowish within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes short, broad, acute, glabrous within, slightly pubescent without; petals roundish, often broadly notched near the base, tapering to short, broad claws marked with red; filaments nearly one-half inch long; pistil pubescent at the ovary, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit matures very early; two and one-eighth inches long, two and one-fourth inches wide, round, slightly compressed, with sides nearly equal; cavity deep, abrupt or slightly flaring; suture shallow; apex depressed, ending in a mucronate or small, mamelon, recurved tip; color greenish-white becoming creamy-white, blushed and blotched with dark red, mottled; pubescence short; skin separates readily from the pulp; flesh greenish-white, juicy, stringy, sweet, very mild; fair to good in quality; stone clinging, one and one-fourth inches long, five-eighths inch thick, oval, plump, faintly winged, abruptly pointed at the apex, with slightly pitted surfaces and with a few grooves; ventral suture deeply grooved along the sides, bulged; dorsal suture deeply furrowed, faintly winged.