LEVY
1. Gard. Mon. 23:82. 1881. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 37. 1909. 3. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 204. 1913.
Henrietta. 4. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 380. 1858. 5. Cult. & Count. Gent. 45:649. 1880. 6. Tex. Sta. Bul. 39:807. 1896. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 33. 1899. 8. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 203. 1913.
Levy Late. 9. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 92, 93. 1881. 10. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 3rd App. 171. 1881. 11. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:349. 1903.
This variety ripens quite too late for any but the most favorable peach-sections in New York. It is a round, yellow-fleshed clingstone of very good quality and might be planted in the parts of New York, where the season permits it to mature, for a very late culinary peach. It is one of the favorite peaches to close the season in Southern fruit-growing sections.
The history of Levy is badly confused. More than half a century ago a peach called Henrietta was cultivated. Where or when the variety originated no one can tell. In 1881, Downing mentioned a peach under the name Levy Late as being a new, late clingstone originating in the garden of W. W. Levy, Washington, District of Columbia. Downing gave Henrietta as a synonym of Levy Late, as have several pomologists since. From these facts, it seems safe to say that the variety is old, that it was first introduced as Henrietta and that the peach which Mr. Levy claimed to have originated was Henrietta. The American Pomological Society, in 1899, added this peach to its fruit-list as Henrietta but in 1909 changed the name to Levy, giving Henrietta as a synonym.
Tree large, vigorous, upright to quite spreading, hardy, productive; trunk thick, rough; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown intermingled with very light ash-gray; branchlets slender, with internodes dark red or purplish-red mingled with light green, smooth, glabrous, with small, numerous, conspicuous, raised lenticels.
Leaves six and one-half inches long, one and one-half inches wide, oval to obovate-lanceolate, of medium thickness, leathery; upper surface dark green, smooth becoming rugose along the midrib; lower surface grayish-green; apex acuminate; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole five-sixteenths inch long, with one to six small, globose, reddish-brown glands variable in position.
Flower-buds hardy, conical to pointed, plump, pubescent, free; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers seven-eighths inch across, with varying shades of pink, sometimes in twos; pedicels short, medium to thick, glabrous, green; calyx-tube reddish-green at the base, orange-colored within, somewhat campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes short, medium to narrow, acute, glabrous within, pubescent without; petals oval, notched near the base, tapering to long, narrow claws often tinged with red at the base; filaments five-sixteenths inch long, equal to the petals in length; pistil pubescent near the base, as long as or longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures very late; about two and one-half inches in diameter, roundish-cordate, compressed, with very unequal halves; cavity medium to deep, wide, abrupt to slightly flaring, with tender skin and often twig-marked; suture deep, extending beyond the tip; apex mamelon, recurved, a few fruits with very large, mucronate tips; color greenish or golden-yellow, with splashes of dull red and a lively blush covering one cheek; pubescence short, thick, fine; skin thick, adherent to the pulp; flesh yellow, juicy, stringy, meaty, mild or somewhat astringent, pleasantly flavored; fair to good in quality; stone clinging, one and one-half inches long, one inch wide, bulged on one side, ovate to oval, plump, winged, with surfaces marked by short, red grooves; ventral suture deeply furrowed along the edges, wide; dorsal suture a deep groove.