BERENICE
1. La. Sta. Bul. 3:44. 1890. 2. Ibid. 27:941. 1894. 3. Tex. Sta. Bul. 39:806. 1896. 4. Ga. Sta. Bul. 42:233. 1898. 5. Del. Sta. Rpt. 13:92. 1901. 6. Mich. Sta. Bul. 194:45. 1901. 7. Berckmans Cat. 10. 1912-13.
When at its best Berenice is hardly surpassed in quality by any other peach but it seems capricious, in the North at least, and this, with the fact that it is none too attractive in coloring, is probably the reason why the variety is not more grown. The trees are about all that could be desired, falling short chiefly in not being as productive as several other peaches of its season and in being a little susceptible to leaf-curl. The variety has been offered to fruit-growers a sufficient length of time to have had its merits well tried as a commercial peach and the fact that it is not now largely grown is presumptive evidence that it has little commercial value. Its high quality makes the variety a good sort for the home collection at least.
Berenice originated some thirty or more years ago with the late Dr. L. E. Berckmans of Augusta, Georgia. It is supposed to have sprung from the pit of a General Lee tree which grew in one of Mr. Berckmans' test orchards. In the Berckmans nursery catalog it is stated of Berenice that after thirty years' trial "there is nothing equal to it in the same season."
BERENICE
Tree large, vigorous, spreading, open-topped, hardy, medium to productive; trunk stocky; branches thick, smooth, reddish-brown mingled with light ash-gray; branchlets with short internodes, dark red overlaid with olive-green, smooth, glabrous, with numerous large and small lenticels raised at the base.
Leaves six inches long, one and five-eighths inches wide, folded upward, oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface light grayish-green; margin coarsely serrate, tipped with dark glands; petiole one-fourth inch long, with two to ten large, reniform, yellowish-green glands variable in position.
Flower-buds large, oblong, slightly pointed, heavily pubescent, usually appressed; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers one and three-sixteenths inches across, pale pink, tinged darker along the edges, well distributed; pedicels short, glabrous, green; calyx-tube red mingled with dull, dark green, orange-colored within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes often broad, acute to obtuse, glabrous within, slightly pubescent or heavily pubescent without; petals round-ovate, broadly notched, tapering to short claws red at base; filaments three-eighths inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent at the ovary, longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two and five-eighths inches long, two and one-half inches wide, round-oval, with halves often unequal; cavity deep, medium to wide, contracted around the sides, with tender skin, often blushed with red; suture shallow, deepening toward the apex; apex roundish or depressed, with a mucronate or mamelon tip; color greenish-yellow, blushed and splashed with red; pubescence short, medium fine; skin tough, separates from the pulp; flesh yellow, faintly tinted with red near the pit, stringy, tender and melting, sweet, mild, pleasant flavored; good in quality; stone nearly free, one and three-eighths inches long, fifteen-sixteenths inch wide, oval, plump, drawn out at the ends, usually with pitted surfaces; ventral suture deeply furrowed along the edges; dorsal suture deeply grooved, with sides slightly wing-like.