RAY
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, the lower branches drooping, medium in productiveness; trunk thick, nearly smooth; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown with a light tinge of ash-gray; branchlets slender, dark red intermingled with olive-green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with numerous raised lenticels variable in size.
Leaves six and one-half inches long, one and five-eighths inches wide, flattened or curled downward, oval to obovate lanceolate, leathery; upper surface dark green, smooth; lower surface medium green; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to three small, globose glands variable in position.
Flower-buds half-hardy, short, heavily pubescent, conical to pointed, plump, usually appressed; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers one inch across, light pink becoming darker pink along the edges; pedicels short; calyx-tube reddish-green, greenish-yellow within, obconic; calyx-lobes long, narrow, obtuse, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without; petals ovate, with claws medium in length and width; filaments three-eighths inch long, equal to the petals in length; pistil pubescent at the base, longer than the stamens.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two and three-eighths inches long, two and one-half inches wide, roundish-conic to oblong-conic, slightly compressed, with nearly equal halves; cavity narrow, abrupt, with tender skin; suture shallow, deepening toward and often extending beyond the tip; apex round, with a mucronate tip; color greenish-white changing to white, scarcely blushed or with a bright pinkish-red blush varying from a small amount to about one-third of the surface, faintly mottled; pubescence coarse, thick, long; skin very thin, tough, separates from the pulp; flesh greenish-white, stained with red near the pit, juicy, stringy, firm but tender, aromatic, sprightly; good in quality; stone semi-free to free, one and seven-sixteenths inches long, slightly more than one inch wide, oval to ovate, plump, with short point at the apex, with grooved and pitted surfaces; ventral suture deeply grooved along the edges, narrow, furrowed; dorsal suture grooved.
RED CHEEK MELOCOTON.
1. Prince Pom. Man. 2:31, 32. 1832. 2. Downing Fr. Trees Am. 492. 1845. 3. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 32. 1867.
Red Cheek Malacotan. 4. Coxe Cult. Fr. Trees 225. 1817. 5. Floy-Lindley Guide Orch. Gard. 186. 1846.
Early Yellow Malacatune. 6. Kenrick Am. Orch. 220. 1832.
Yellow or Red Cheek Malacatune. 7. Ibid. 225. 1832.
Hogg's Malacatune. 8. Ibid. 190. 1841.
Red Cheek. 9. Elliott Fr. Book 288. 1854. 10. Mich. Sta. Bul. 169:223, 224. 1899. 11. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:354. 1903. 12. Fulton Peach Cult. 195, 196. 1908. 13. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 39. 1909.
Malacatune. 14. Hooper W. Fr. Book 225. 1857.
For nearly a century, beginning soon after the Revolutionary War, Red Cheek Melocoton had few rivals among yellow-fleshed, freestone peaches. Even yet it is surpassed in quality only by members of the Crawford family of which, by the way, it is supposed to be the immediate ancestor—certainly all Crawford-like peaches resemble it in both fruit and tree-characters. Lack of vigor and unproductiveness have driven Red Cheek Melocoton from common cultivation—indeed it is now almost impossible to obtain the trees. We give the variety attention in The Peaches of New York, not because of present worth, but because of the prominent part it has played in the peach-industry of the country in the past. The color-plate is an admirable reproduction of this old peach though possibly the fruits run a little larger than in the illustration. The derivation of "Melocoton," so often used in this text, is given on page 51.
Red Cheek Melocoton is an American seedling which, according to William Prince, sprang from a bud of a stock on which Lemon Cling had been grafted, at the Prince farm, Flushing, New York. The Princes were so impressed with the seedling that they propagated it, giving it the name Red Cheek Malacatune, the name Malacatune at that time being given to all yellow peaches having little red. The discovery of the variety in the Prince orchards dates back considerably over one hundred years. From Red Cheek Melocoton the Crawfords and several other notable peaches are said to have come. In 1867 the American Pomological Society placed this variety in its catalog as Red Cheek Melocoton but in 1909 shortened the name to Red Cheek. We prefer to preserve the old name.
RED CHEEK MELOCOTON
Tree medium in size, vigorous, upright-spreading, lacking in productiveness; trunk intermediate in thickness and smoothness; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown mingled with light ash-gray; branchlets thick, variable in length, with medium to long internodes, deep, dark red intermingled with green, glossy, roughened by the lenticels, glabrous, with a few smallish, inconspicuous lenticels which are raised toward the base.
Leaves seven and one-fourth inches long, nearly two inches wide, variable in position, oval to obovate-lanceolate, medium in thickness, leathery, dark olive-green, smooth, becoming rugose toward the midrib; margin sharply serrate; petiole three-eighths inch long, glandless or with one to three small, globose, alternate glands variable in color and in their position; flower-buds intermediate in size and length, conical or pointed, plump, free; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers small.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two and one-fourth inches long, about two and one-half inches wide, roundish-cordate, compressed, with halves nearly equal; cavity wide, deep, flaring or abrupt; suture shallow; apex roundish, with a mucronate or mamelon tip; color deep golden-yellow, splashed, blushed and mottled with red; pubescence heavy; skin thick, tough, adherent to the pulp; flesh rayed with red near the pit, yellow, juicy, firm but tender, sweet, pleasantly flavored; good in quality; stone free, one and one-half inches long, one inch wide, ovate, more or less bulged at one side and drawn out near the base, plump, rather long-pointed, with short grooves and pits in the surfaces; ventral suture winged, medium in thickness, deeply grooved and furrowed along the edges; dorsal suture a narrow groove, winged.