_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.
[Illustration: GENERAL LEE]
Tree very large, vigorous, spreading, unproductive; trunk
thick, rough; branches reddish-brown tinged with light
ash-gray; branchlets slender, with internodes dark red mingled
with considerable green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with
numerous inconspicuous, raised lenticels variable in size.
Leaves six and one-fourth inches long, one and one-half inches
wide, flat or folded downward, oval to obovate-lanceolate,
thick, leathery; upper surface dark, dull green, smooth; lower
surface grayish-green; apex acuminate; margin coarsely serrate,
tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole nearly one-half inch
long, with one to four large, reniform, reddish-brown glands
variable in position.
Flower-buds somewhat tender, large, conspicuous, very
plump, conical to obtuse, strongly pubescent, appressed or
slightly free; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers one and
thirteen-sixteenths inches across, pink, well distributed;
pedicels short, glabrous, green; calyx-tube reddish-green
at the base, greenish-yellow within, obconic, glabrous;
calyx-lobes narrow, obtuse, glabrous within, pubescent without;
petals narrow-oval, tapering to short, broad claws occasionally
with reddish base; filaments seven-sixteenths inch long,
shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent near the base, longer
than the stamens.
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