Peach.

Origin unknown. Tree moderate grower.

Fruit below medium, oblate, inclining to conic, pale yellow, with blush of red in the sun, and thickly sprinkled with gray dots. Stalk short. Calyx closed. Flesh white, crisp, tender, juicy, lively brisk subacid. Good to very good. Core small. December to April. A good keeper.

— A.J. Downing, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1900)

PEACH.

REFERENCES. 1. Downing, 1869:299. 2. Bailey, An. Hort., 1892:246. 3. Burrill and McCluer, Ill. Sta. Bul., 45:335. 1896. 4. Beach and Clark, N. Y. Sta. Bul., 248:137. 1904.

SYNONYMS. Peach of Kentucky (3). Winter Peach (3).

Fruit white-skinned, often with delicate pink cheek overspread with whitish bloom. In general appearance it is quite attractive, but it does not always average good marketable size. It has a perfumed, subacid flesh of pretty good quality. The tree is long-lived and a pretty reliable biennial cropper, but hardly as uniformly productive as is desirable in a commercial variety. Although it has long been known in cultivation and is considered by some a profitable sort, generally speaking it has won but little recognition among fruit growers. It is not recommended for general planting, but it may be valuable locally.

Historical. Origin unknown (1). It is but very little grown in New York.

TREE. Tree medium in size, moderately vigorous to vigorous with moderately long, slender, crooked branches. Form roundish or nearly upright, open. Twigs medium to short, straight, moderately stout; internodes medium to short. Bark brown or somewhat tinged with red, lightly streaked with scarf-skin, pubescent. Lenticels quite numerous but not conspicuous, small, roundish or elongated, not raised. Buds medium to small, plump, obtuse, free or nearly so, pubescent.

FRUIT. Fruit below medium to above. Form oblate varying to roundish, flat at base, inclined to conic, somewhat ribbed and often irregularly elliptical; sides often unequal. Stem short to long, sometimes swollen. Cavity rather large, acute, moderately deep, rather broad, furrowed, usually russeted. Calyx small to above medium, closed or partly open. Basin small to medium, shallow to moderately deep, narrow to moderately wide, abrupt to rather obtuse, sometimes furrowed, often wrinkled. Skin moderately thin, rather tender, smooth, clear pale yellow or whitish, often with a faint blush sometimes deepening in part to pink, mottled about the cavity with whitish scarf-skin and overspread with a white bloom which produces a delicate and beautiful effect. Dots numerous, whitish or areolar with russet point, often submerged. Calyx tube usually funnel-shape and rather narrow with wide limb, sometimes conical. Stamens basal. Core medium or below medium in size, abaxile; cells usually symmetrical, sometimes open; core lines clasping or meeting. Carpels elliptical to somewhat obcordate, emarginate, smooth. Seeds few, above medium to rather small, wide, obtuse. Flesh whitish tinged with yellow, very firm, moderately fine-grained, breaking, tender, very juicy, rather briskly subacid, perfumed, slightly astringent, good or sometimes very good in quality. Season December to May or June.

— S.A. Beach, The Apples of New York, Vol. 1 (1905)

WINTER PEACH. Fl. and Pom., 1883, 153. F., Pêche d'Hiver. Culinary, till March, medium, 2⅜ by 2, round flattened, fairly regular. Colour, palest creamy-yellow with faint scarlet blush. Flesh, crisp, yellowish, juicy, slight spicy flavour. Eye, open, in a rather deep basin. Stem, very short in a deep cavity. Growth, moderate; fertility, moderate. Leaf, pale, little upfolded, large, very coarsely curved serrate. Origin, an American variety of uncertain origin; known in England in 1853. This apple keeps well but it is not of particularly good flavour, and being apt to canker it is only second rate.

— E.A. Bunyard, A Handbook of Hardy Fruits (1920)