Tree large, vigorous, spreading, the lower branches drooping, very productive; trunk medium in thickness, smooth; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown mingled with light ash-gray; branchlets slender, short, with short internodes, dark red mingled with olive-green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with few inconspicuous lenticels variable in size and raised toward the base.
Leaves seven inches long, one and three-fourths inches wide, variable in position, oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dark, dull green, smooth becoming rugose along the midrib; lower surface grayish-green; apex long and narrow; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to four small, globose, reddish-brown glands usually at the base of the blade.
Flower-buds hardy, long, heavily pubescent, conical to obtuse, plump, appressed or partly free; blossoms appear very early; flowers nearly two inches across, pink, usually single; pedicels short, of medium thickness, glabrous, green; calyx-tube dark, dull reddish-green, greenish-yellow within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes broad, often emarginated, acute or obtuse, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without; petals oval to roundish-obovate, tapering to long, narrow claws; filaments about one-half inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent only at the base, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit matures in early mid-season; two and one-fourth inches long, two and three-sixteenths inches wide, round-oval or somewhat cordate, compressed, with unequal halves, bulged near the apex; cavity medium to deep, abrupt or flaring, with tender skin; suture quite variable in depth; apex round or depressed, with a small, mucronate or recurved, mamelon tip; color greenish-white, with a blush covering much of the surface, more or less mottled; pubescence thin, fine, short; skin thin, tough, semi-free; flesh white, faintly tinged with red near the pit, juicy, stringy, tender and melting, pleasantly flavored; good in quality; stone semi-clinging or free, one and three-eighths inches long, one inch wide, oval, flattened at the base, winged, with pitted surfaces; ventral suture deeply grooved near the edges, narrow; dorsal suture grooved, winged.
PEENTO
1. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 41. 1877. 2. Gard. Mon. 19:114, 301. 1877. 3. Gard. Mon. 26:61. 1884. 4. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 650. 1887. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 32. 1889. 6. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 114-116. 1889. 7. Fla. Sta. Bul. 62:506-509, Pl. 1. 1902. 8. Fulton Peach Cult. 202. 1908.
Chinese Flat. 9. Prince Treat. Hort. 16, 17. 1828. 10. Kenrick Am. Orch. 225, 226. 1832.
Flat Peach of China. 11. Lindley Guide Orch. 247, 248. 1831. 12. Horticulturist 1:383, 384, fig. 92. 1846-47. 13. Fla. Sta. Bul. 62:512, 513. 1902.
Platt Pfirsich. 14. Mathieu Nom. Pom. 410. 1889.
For the history and a discussion of the horticultural characters of Peento, the reader is referred to page 108. The variety is too tender to cold to be grown in New York; in fact it succeeds only in Florida and the warmest parts of the other Gulf States. The American Pomological Society listed Peento in its fruit-catalog in 1889. The following description, as it applies to the tree, has been compiled:
PEENTO
[Reproduced from Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London IV: 512. 1822.]
Tree vigorous, open-topped, too tender for the North, variable in productiveness; leaves mature late, four and one-half inches long, one and seven-sixteenths inches wide, oblong-oval, thin, leathery; upper surface light olive-green, smooth; lower surface grayish-green; margin coarsely serrate, tipped with dark glands; petiole with two or three reniform glands of medium size, gray or greenish-yellow, usually at the base.
Fruit matures early; one and three-eighths inches long, two and seven-sixteenths inches wide, strongly oblate; cavity shallow, very wide, flaring, twig-marked; suture deep, wide, extending two-thirds around the fruit; apex depressed, set in a large, wide, flaring basin; color creamy-yellow, mottled and delicately pencilled with red, often blushed toward the apex; pubescence short, thick; skin thick, tough, nearly free; flesh white, stained red at the stone, juicy, stringy, tender and melting, sweet, mild, with an almond-like flavor; very good in quality; stone clings, red, one-half inch long, fifteen-sixteenths inch wide, strongly oblate, with corrugated surfaces; ventral suture very deep at the edges, narrow at the base, becoming wide at the apex; dorsal suture a wide, deep groove, merging into a line at the apex.
PROLIFIC
1. Ga. Sta. Bul. 42:240. 1898.
New Prolific. 2. Col. O. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 32. 1892. 3. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 190. 1895. 4. Ohio Hort. Soc. Rpt. 59. 1896-97. 5. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:221. 1899. 6. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:352. 1903. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 38. 1909.