PALLAS
1. Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 55. 1885. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 46. 1891. 3. La. Sta. Bul. 17:499. 1891. 4. Tex. Sta. Bul. 39:805. 1896. 5. Ga. Sta. Bul. 42:239, 240. 1898. 6. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:222. 1899. 7. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:353. 1903. 8. Fla. Sta. Bul. 73:150. 1904. 9. Ala. Sta. Bul. 156:134. 1911.
Pallas Honeydew. 10. Ohio Sta. Bul. 170:178. 1906.
Pallas is about the best of the several honey-flavored, beaked peaches that have fruited on the Station grounds. This is one of the sorts supposed to thrive only in warm climates but here, in a location none too favorably situated as to climate, the trees are vigorous, appear to be hardy and differ from northern varieties, so far as life events are concerned, only in holding their leaves longer. The fruits run small and lack uniformity in size, faults that will not permit Pallas ever to become a commercial sort in New York. Moreover, the peaches are not attractive in appearance, suffer terribly from brown-rot and do not ship well—further disqualifications for competition in commerce. In quality, especially, to those who have a taste for sweets, Pallas is almost unapproachable—so rich, sweet, aromatic and delicious as well to justify the sobriquet, "Honeydew," frequently bestowed upon it. This variety might well be planted in every home orchard.
Pallas is one of the many seedlings of Honey and originated in 1878 with L. E. Berckmans, Augusta, Georgia. In 1891 the American Pomological Society added Pallas to its list of fruits as a noteworthy variety for southern fruit-districts.
PALLAS
Tree medium in vigor, upright-spreading, round-topped, productive; trunk rough; branches roughened by the lenticels, brownish intermingled with ash-gray and a little red; branchlets slender, with internodes of medium length, dark pinkish-red mingled with green, smooth, glabrous, with numerous conspicuous, small, raised, russet-colored lenticels.
Leaves fall late in the season, six inches long, one and one-half inches wide, variable in position, ovate-lanceolate, thin, leathery; upper surface dull, dark green, smooth; lower surface olive-green; margin sharply and often doubly serrate, glandular; petiole three-eighths inch long, stout, glandless or with one to three small, globose glands usually at the base of the leaf.
Flower-buds large, long, conical, plump, pubescent, conspicuous, usually free; flowers appear in mid-season, light pink changing to darker red; pedicels thick, glabrous, green; calyx-tube red, yellowish-green within, obconic, glabrous; calyx-lobes obtuse, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without; petals oval, entire, red at the base; filaments shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent, longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures in early mid-season; two and one-fourth inches long, two inches wide, pointed-oval, compressed, with halves equal; cavity shallow, flaring, with tender skin; suture shallow; apex a characteristically long, straight tip; color pale white or greenish-white occasionally with a bright red blush but mostly with dull mottlings; pubescence medium in amount; skin thick, tough; flesh white, scarcely stained at the pit, very juicy, sweet, tender and melting, high-flavored; very good in quality; stone free, one and five-sixteenths inches long, seven-eighths inch wide, oval to ovate, slightly wedge-shaped at the base, plump, conspicuously winged, long-pointed, with pitted and grooved surfaces; ventral suture narrow, furrowed; dorsal suture grooved.