Tree large, vigorous, round, compact, hardy, unproductive; trunk thick; branches stocky, reddish-bronze, with a light ash-gray tinge; branchlets slender, long, with short internodes, olive-green overlaid with dark red, smooth, glabrous, with numerous usually small, inconspicuous lenticels.
Leaves five and three-fourths inches long, one and one-half inches wide, folded upward, oval-lanceolate; leaves thin, somewhat leathery; upper surface dark green, varying from smooth to rugose; lower surface light grayish-green; margin finely serrate, with dark brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, with two to five reniform, light or dark green glands variable in position.
Flower-buds large, long, plump, oblong-conic, pubescent, free; flowers open in mid-season; blossoms pink, one and three-eighths inches across; pedicels short, glabrous, pale green; calyx-tube dull, speckled, greenish-red, light greenish-yellow within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes long, narrow, acute, glabrous within, heavily pubescent without; petals oval to ovate, crenate near the base, tapering to short, narrow claws white at the base; filaments three-eighths inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent, seven-sixteenths inch long, equal to or shorter than the stamens.
Fruit matures very late; one and three-fourths inches long, one and seven-eighths inches thick, compressed, with unequal halves often giving a lopsided appearance; cavity narrow, abrupt, usually white; suture shallow; apex round, with a mucronate tip; color dull greenish-white, entirely overspread with dingy pink mingled with splashes and stripes of darker, clouded red, mottled; pubescence long, coarse; skin tough, adherent to the pulp; flesh red, becoming lighter colored next the stone, juicy, coarse, stringy, tough and meaty, brisk, pleasantly flavored; fair in quality; stone clinging, one and one-fourth inches long, seven-eighths inch wide, oval to slightly obovate, short-pointed, strongly bulged near the apex, with grooved and pitted surfaces; ventral suture deeply furrowed at the sides, narrow; dorsal suture deep, medium in width.
BLOOD LEAF
1. Mich. Sta. Bul. 118:33. 1895.
Blood-leaved Peach. 2. Gard. Mon. 13:206. 1871. 3. Ibid. 14:316, Pl. 1872. 4. Ibid. 15:142, 183. 1873. 5. Horticulturist 28:155. 1873. 6. Gard. Mon. 17:58, 59. 1875.
Blood Leaf is a handsome ornamental. Its beet-red leaves in early spring and its pink blossoms, borne in great profusion, entitle it to esteem for both foliage and flowers. It is worth growing as well for its fruits. The color-plate opposite page 78 shows the flowers and the accompanying illustration depicts the fruit-characters. The peaches are in no way remarkable and yet they please some as a dessert fruit. Seedlings springing up under two trees of this variety in the Station orchard in 1913, furnished interesting data on the inheritance of the blood-red color in the leaves of this peach. Out of 252 young trees, 189 were red-leaved and 63 green-leaved—an exact three-to-one ratio to show that the green color is carried as a recessive.
Several stories are told of the origin of this peach. One is that on the battlefield of Fort Donelson, Kentucky, a southern general, fatally wounded, sucked the juice of a peach and threw the stone into the little pool of blood which flowed from his side. From this pit in its bloody seed-bed sprang the tree with its blood-red leaves. John L. Hebron, in a letter published in Gardener's Monthly, 1873, tells a different tale. According to Hebron the variety was found by P. I. Connor in 1866 at Champion Hills, Mississippi, on the battlefield where General Tilghman was killed, a tree having sprung up close to the spot where the General died. The variety is sometimes called the General Tilghman peach. Leaving fable and coming to facts, we find that the variety originated in Mississippi in the sixties and was introduced to the trade in 1871.
BLOOD LEAF
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, willowy in growth, open-topped, hardy, unproductive; trunk thick, rough; branches smooth, reddish-bronze overspread with light ash-gray; branchlets slender, long, with short internodes, dull green overlaid with dark red, smooth, glabrous, with numerous small, inconspicuous lenticels.
Leaves four and three-fourths inches long, one and one-fourth inches wide, folded upward, oval-lanceolate with tendency to obovate, thin; upper surface when young purplish-red but changing to green, smooth or rugose; lower surface purplish-olive; margin finely serrate, tipped with small, dark glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, with two to five small, reniform, greenish-yellow, red-tipped glands variable in position.
Flower-buds large, oblong-conic, plump, pubescent, appressed; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers one and one-half inches across, pale pink, occasionally in twos; pedicels nearly sessile, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube dark, dull red mingled with green, yellowish within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes long, narrow, acute, glabrous within, slightly pubescent to heavily pubescent without; petals oval, slightly contracted toward the apex, tapering to short claws; filaments three-eighths inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit matures very late; one and five-eighths inches long, nearly one and five-eighths inches wide, roundish-oval, slightly compressed, with unequal sides, with prominent bulge near the apex; cavity deep, narrow, abrupt, contracted about the sides, marked with narrow, radiating stripes of pale red; suture very shallow, becoming deeper toward the apex; apex roundish or slightly depressed, with a small, mucronate or recurved, mamelon tip; color greenish-white and pale yellow, lightly washed with dull pink which changes to dull brown, in some cases deepening to a reddish blush; pubescence thick, short, fine; skin thin, tender, adherent to the pulp; flesh white to the pit, juicy, coarse, meaty but tender, sweetish, with some astringency; poor in quality; stone clinging, over one inch long, three-fourths inch wide, oval, very plump, tapering to a short, blunt point at the apex, with grooved surfaces; ventral suture lightly furrowed along the sides, rather wide; dorsal suture with narrow groove, slightly winged.
BRIGDON
1. Am. Gard. 11:244, 378. 1890. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 32. 1899. 3. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:340. 1903. 4. Waugh Am. Peach Orch. 199. 1913.
Garfield. 5. Can. Hort. 26:441, fig. 2665. 1903.