Foster originated about 1857 with J. T. Foster, Medford, Massachusetts, from the stone of a peach purchased by him in a Boston market. It was awarded a place on the American Pomological Society's list of recommended fruits in 1869.
FOSTER
Tree very large, vigorous, upright-spreading, hardy, variable in productiveness; trunk thick; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown intermingled with light ash-gray; branchlets spur-like, long, dark pinkish-red mingled with olive-green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with numerous large and small lenticels raised at the base.
Leaves six inches long, one and three-eighths inches wide, folded upward, oval to obovate-lanceolate, intermediate in thickness, leathery; upper surface dark green, smooth becoming rugose near the midrib; lower surface grayish-green; margin finely serrate, tipped with small glands; petiole seven-sixteenths inch long, with one to four small globose glands variable in color and position; flower-buds somewhat tender, conical or pointed, pubescent, free; blossoms appear in mid-season.
Fruit matures in mid-season; two and seven-sixteenths inches long, more than two and one-half inches wide, round-cordate, often bulged at one side, compressed, with unequal sides; cavity deep, wide, flaring or somewhat abrupt, often splashed with red; suture shallow, becoming deeper at both apex and cavity and extending slightly beyond the point; apex roundish or pointed, with a recurved, mamelon or occasionally mucronate tip; color deep yellow overspread with dark red, with a few splashes or stripes of red; pubescence long, thick; skin thick, tough, separates from the pulp when fully ripe; flesh deep yellow, faintly stained with red near the pit, juicy, coarse and stringy, firm but tender, sweet, mild, spicy; very good in quality; stone free.
GENERAL LEE
1. Gard. Mon. 29:271. 1887. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 30. 1889. 3. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:346. 1903.
R. E. Lee. 4. Ga. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 21. 1877. 5. Gard. Mon. 27:275. 1885. 6. Ga. Sta. Bul. 42:240. 1898.
Lee. 7. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat. 22. 1897. 8. Del. Sta. Rpt. 13:104. 1901. 9. Budd-Hansen Am. Hort. Man. 2:349. 1903.
General Lee is a white-fleshed clingstone, the fruit none too attractive and surpassed by that of other varieties of its season in quality. It is without value in the North. Southern growers say General Lee is an improved Chinese Cling and as such well worth growing under some conditions. It has the reputation of being quite susceptible to brown-rot. The variety is offered by a good many nurserymen and we discuss it only to condemn it for planting in New York. The variety, as its history shows, really belongs to eastern Asia and thus arouses interest.
General Lee originated with Judge Campbell, Pensacola, Florida, from pits brought from Japan in 1860. In 1864 P. J. Berckmans received buds from R. R. Hunley of Alabama and in 1867 introduced the sort under the name General Lee. The American Pomological Society listed this peach in 1889 as General Lee but in 1897 shortened the name to Lee and so it appears in the Society's catalog at the present time. We prefer the old name since when shortened it loses all significance as a commemorative appellation.
GENERAL LEE