The peaches of New York

by U. P. Hedrick

BLOOD LEAF

We name but one sub-species of Prunus persica, and that doubtful. Mr. Frank N. Meyer of the United States Department of Agriculture has recently introduced into the United States cuttings of a wild peach from the province of Kansu, China, which he thinks has horticultural value. The peach is Prunus persica potanini Batalin (Act. Hort. Petrop. 12:164. 1892) which Mr. Meyer describes as follows:[168]

"A wild peach of the davidiana type, but differing from it in various points. Collected at the base of sheltered mountains at an elevation of 4300 feet. A tall shrub or even small tree, up to 30 feet in height, bark of stem or trunk dark reddish-brown and quite smooth in the younger shoots; leaves like those of Amygdalus davidiana but often broader in the middle and always less pointed. Fruits of round-elongated form; skin covered with a heavy down, no edible flesh; stones of elliptical shape, grooves longer than in A. davidiana, shells very hard and thick, kernels elongated and relatively small. Found growing at elevations from 4000 to 7000 feet, in side valleys away from the Siku river; thrives especially well in sheltered and warm mountain pockets. Of value especially as a stock for stone-fruits and possibly able to stand even more dry heat than A. davidiana; also recommended as an ornamental spring-flowering tree, especially for the drier parts of the United States. Chinese name Mao t'ao, meaning 'hairy peach.'"

There are many ornamental forms of the peach-tree—sorts with single or double flowers, white, pink or red in color, normal, red or variegated foliage and standard or dwarf trees. The best-known named ornamental peaches are camelliaeflora with large, carmine flowers and its sub-variety, plena, with double flowers; versicolor with different colored flowers on branches of the same tree; atropurpurea with brownish-red foliage; foliis rubris, similar or possibly the same as the preceding, the color in both extending to the fruit; magnifica, a semi-double with brilliant carmine-crimson flowers; pyramidalis, a pyrimidal form; pendula, a weeping peach; and still others, of the distinctness of which we cannot be certain, as dianthi-alba-plena, rubro-plena, and coccineo-plena. With these ornamentals we are not to be further concerned.

Of Japanese garden-forms the following varieties have been described: P. Persica var. densa Makimo Tokyo Bot. Mag. 16:178. 1902. P. persica var. vulgaris, f. stellata Makimo l. c. 22:119. 1908. P. Persica var. vulgaris, f. praematura Makimo l. c. 22:119. 1908.

Species are but convenient groups, their limits reflecting the judgment of the species-maker. Were the authors of this text to divide Prunus persica, the cleavage lines would be other than those indicated in the foregoing paragraphs. Prunus persica might be divided, though there is no intention of furthering confusion by the addition of new names, into two species. One would include the white-fleshed, clingstone peaches, with large flowers and calyx greenish-yellow inside; the other the yellow-fleshed, freestone peaches, with small flowers and calyx-cups orange inside. Primitive forms in China indicate such a division, the evolution of varieties suggests it and the present disposition of the characters named as separating these theoretical species attest the reasonableness of such a separation. The primitive forms have been described and the descent of varieties may be traced in the last two chapters, so that we need only amplify the statement as to the present disposition of characters.

The characters in the two hypothetical species have been thoroughly shuffled by hybridization but even if there is not correlation, as there certainly is between color in calyx-cup and color of flesh, it might be expected that those associated in the primitive plant, the Adam of the race, would, despite the shuffling, still be most often associated. What are the facts? In the Station orchard are 109 white-fleshed peaches; 40 per ct. of these are semi-cling or clingstones leaving 60 per ct. nearly or quite free (there is constant selection for freestones); 64 per ct. have large flowers; all have calyx-cups yellowish-green inside. There are in this orchard 106 yellow-fleshed peaches; but 17 per ct. of these are cling or semi-cling, the remainder being either quite free or nearly so; 73 per ct. have small or medium-sized flowers; all have calyx-cups deeply colored with orange inside.

Similarities in characters indicate so close a relationship between the almond and the peach that one might well suspect many hybrids between the two. Yet there appear to be but few clear cases of peach and almond crosses. Knight[169] reports crossing the two, the doubtful results of which led him to believe, as we have seen, that the peach is but a modified almond. Several such crosses are indicated in botanical literature[170] but whether all refer to one or several supposed crosses there is no way of knowing—probably to one. The almond blooms so much earlier than the peach that crosses could hardly occur in nature. A hybrid between the two from which could be evolved a late-blooming almond is a consummation to be wished.

CHINESE FREE (Medium Flowered)