GENERAL LEE
1. Gard. Mon. 29:271. 1887. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 30. 1889. 3. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:346. 1903.
R. E. Lee. 4. Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 21. 1877. 5. Gard. Mon. 27:275. 1885. 6. Ga. Sta. Bul. 42:240. 1898.
Lee. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 22. 1897. 8. Del. Sta. Rpt. 13:104. 1901. 9. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:349. 1903.
General Lee is a white-fleshed clingstone, the fruit none too attractive and surpassed by that of other varieties of its season in quality. It is without value in the North. Southern growers say General Lee is an improved Chinese Cling and as such well worth growing under some conditions. It has the reputation of being quite susceptible to brown-rot. The variety is offered by a good many nurserymen and we discuss it only to condemn it for planting in New York. The variety, as its history shows, really belongs to eastern Asia and thus arouses interest.
General Lee originated with Judge Campbell, Pensacola, Florida, from pits brought from Japan in 1860. In 1864 P. J. Berckmans received buds from R. R. Hunley of Alabama and in 1867 introduced the sort under the name General Lee. The American Pomological Society listed this peach in 1889 as General Lee but in 1897 shortened the name to Lee and so it appears in the Society's catalog at the present time. We prefer the old name since when shortened it loses all significance as a commemorative appellation.
GENERAL LEE
Tree very large, vigorous, spreading, unproductive; trunk thick, rough; branches reddish-brown tinged with light ash-gray; branchlets slender, with internodes dark red mingled with considerable green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with numerous inconspicuous, raised lenticels variable in size.
Leaves six and one-fourth inches long, one and one-half inches wide, flat or folded downward, oval to obovate-lanceolate, thick, leathery; upper surface dark, dull green, smooth; lower surface grayish-green; apex acuminate; margin coarsely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole nearly one-half inch long, with one to four large, reniform, reddish-brown glands variable in position.
Flower-buds somewhat tender, large, conspicuous, very plump, conical to obtuse, strongly pubescent, appressed or slightly free; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers one and thirteen-sixteenths inches across, pink, well distributed; pedicels short, glabrous, green; calyx-tube reddish-green at the base, greenish-yellow within, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes narrow, obtuse, glabrous within, pubescent without; petals narrow-oval, tapering to short, broad claws occasionally with reddish base; filaments seven-sixteenths inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent near the base, longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two and five-eighths inches long, two and one-half inches wide, round or roundish-oval, compressed, with halves equal; cavity deep, medium to wide, contracted around the sides, abrupt or flaring, often mottled with red; suture medium to deep, extending beyond the tip; apex mucronate, mamelon; color greenish-white changing to creamy-white, with a dull or lively red blush in which are intermingled a few splashes of duller red; pubescence coarse, long, thick; skin thick, tough, clings to the pulp; flesh white, stained with red near the pit, juicy, stringy, tender, sweet but sprightly, pleasantly flavored; good in quality; stone clinging, one and five-sixteenths inches long, one inch wide, bulged on one side, broadly oval to ovate, flattened, short-pointed at the apex, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture winged, narrow, deeply grooved along the edges; dorsal suture grooved.