THURBER
1. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 75. 1873. 2. Gard. Mon. 17:175. 1875. 3. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 2nd App. 144. 1876. 4. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 32. 1881. 5. Del. Sta. Rpt. 13:109 fig. 8, 110. 1901. 6. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:357. 1903.
Thurber is mediocre in all of its characters in New York, though perhaps it is a little better in quality than the average white-fleshed, mid-season freestone. In the South, however, it seems to be considered one of the best of its class not only in quality but in size and appearance. The fruits are small in New York, as the color-plate shows, while all descriptions of them in the South say they are large. The variety is possibly worth planting, because of good quality, in home orchards in this State.
Thurber is a seedling of Chinese Cling grown by L. E. Berckmans, Rome, Georgia, more than forty years ago. The variety was named in honor of Dr. George Thurber, American botanist, naturalist and editor. It is similar to its parent but is a freestone and the trees are more compact and thrifty than those of Chinese Cling. The American Pomological Society added Thurber to its fruit-list in 1881, a place it still holds
THURBER
Tree above medium size, vigorous, upright-spreading, productive; trunk thick and smooth; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown mingled with light ash-gray; branchlets slender, often very long, olive-green with some red, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with numerous conspicuous, raised lenticels variable in size, usually russetted toward the base.
Leaves six inches long, over one and one-half inches wide, flattened or curled downward, oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dull, dark green, smooth becoming rugose along the midrib; lower surface grayish-green; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to four small, globose glands variable in color and position.
Flower-buds tender, large, medium to short, heavily pubescent, obtuse, very plump, usually free; blossoms open in mid-season; flowers one and one-eighth inches across, light pink, darker along the edges, usually single; pedicels long, slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube reddish-green, greenish-yellow within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes acute, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without, flattened; petals ovate, tapering to short, narrow claws; filaments seven-sixteenths inch long, equal to the petals in length; pistil longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two and three-eighths inches long, two and one-eighth inches wide, round-oval, somewhat compressed, with unequal halves; cavity shallow, narrow, flaring or abrupt, often tinted with red, compressed about the sides; suture a line or very shallow, often extending beyond the tip; apex round, with a recurved, mucronate or mamelon tip; color green or creamy-white, with few splashes of dull red over a lively red blush; pubescence long, coarse, thick; skin thin, tough, variable in adherence to the pulp; flesh white, deeply stained with red near the pit, juicy, tender and melting, pleasantly sprightly, aromatic; good in quality; stone free, one and one-half inches long, more than an inch wide, red, obovate to oval, flattened toward the base, plump, tapering to a short point, often winged on the ventral suture, with surfaces pitted and marked by short grooves; ventral suture deeply grooved along the edges, narrow; dorsal suture grooved, slightly winged.