SURPASSE
1. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:227. 1899. 2. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:357. 1903.
Surpasse Melocoton. 3. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 33. 1874. 4. Barry Fr. Garden 407. 1883. 5. R. I. Sta. Bul. 7:41. 1890.
As Surpasse grows on the Station grounds, it has most of the qualities of a first-class yellow-fleshed, freestone peach. The fruits are large, handsome and of excellent quality, while the trees are satisfactory in every respect except, possibly, in productiveness. The variety has been grown sufficiently long in New York to have been well tested and has not found favor, so that we must conclude that it does not do as well elsewhere as here and that it is doomed to go into the discard.
Surpasse originated more than forty years ago on the grounds of Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, New York, and has long been sold by this nursery firm. It has never been widely nor largely grown commercially but is not uncommon in western New York.
SURPASSE
Tree above medium size, vigorous, upright-spreading, with a tendency to droop, rather unproductive; trunk thick and smooth; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown mingled with light ash-gray; branchlets thick, inclined to rebranch, long, dark pinkish-red with some green, smooth except for the lenticels, glabrous, with very conspicuous, numerous, large and small, raised lenticels.
Leaves six inches long, one and five-eighths inches wide, variable in position, oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dark olive-green, rugose along the midrib; apex acuminate; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole seven-sixteenths inch long, glandless or with one to four small, globose glands variable in color and position.
Flower-buds tender, pubescent, conical to pointed, plump, usually free; blossoms open in mid-season; flowers seven-eighths inch across, light pink but darker along the edges, usually single; pedicels short, glabrous, green; calyx-tube reddish-green, orange-colored within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes long, narrow, acute, glabrous within, pubescent without; petals ovate, with short, indistinct claws; filaments three-eighths inch long, equal to the petals in length; pistil as long as the stamens.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two and one-half inches long, two and three-eighths inches wide, round-cordate, irregular, compressed, much bulged near the apex, with unequal halves; cavity deep, wide, flaring to abrupt, with tender, reddish skin; suture a line becoming deeper toward the tip; apex pointed, usually with an erect, mamelon tip; color pale yellow or orange-yellow, mottled and splashed more or less with red and overspread with a lively, dark red blush; pubescence medium in length, thick, fine; skin thin, separates from the pulp; flesh light yellow, red near the pit, very juicy, rather coarse, stringy, tender and melting, sprightly, highly flavored; good to very good in quality; stone free, one and three-eighths inches long, fifteen-sixteenths inch wide, ovate, rather plump, tapering to a long point, sometimes slightly winged along the ventral suture, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture deeply grooved along the edges, below medium in width, furrowed; dorsal suture grooved, winged.