Heath Free is another old variety, a native of New England. Kenrick,
one of the first American pomologists, received the variety from
General Heath, Roxbury, Massachusetts, early in the Nineteenth Century.
Later, Kenrick sent it to Prince at Flushing, New York, who is credited
with having distributed it. The variety should not be confused with
Heath Cling. Ripening at the latter end of the peach-season, the term
"Late" is often attached to the name. In 1862 the American Pomological
Society put this peach on its fruit-list under the name Kenrick
Heath but dropped it from the list in 1899. Ten years later, 1909, the
variety was replaced in the Society's catalog as Heath Free.
[Illustration: HEATH FREE]
Tree very large, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped,
unproductive; trunk thick, somewhat shaggy; branches stocky,
smooth, reddish-brown covered with very light ash-gray;
branchlets long, with many short, spur-like branches near the
tips, with internodes dark red intermingled with olive-green,
glossy, smooth, glabrous, with numerous conspicuous lenticels,
raised near the base and tip.
Leaves seven and one-eighth inches long, one and three-fourths
inches wide, folded upward, recurved slightly, long-oval
to obovate-lanceolate, rather thin; upper surface dark
green, smooth becoming rugose near the midrib; lower surface
grayish-green; margin finely serrate, with reddish-brown
glands; petiole one-half inch long, with two to five reniform,
reddish-brown glands usually on the petiole.
Flower-buds half-hardy, conical or pointed, very pubescent,
free; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers dark pink along
the margins of the petals changing to white toward their
centers, well distributed; pedicels short, glabrous, green;
calyx-tube reddish-green, yellow within, campanulate, glabrous;
calyx-lobes short, narrow, acute to obtuse, glabrous within,
pubescent without; petals small, narrow-oval, often broadly
notched near the base, tapering to short, broad claws red at
the base; filaments one-fourth inch long, equal to the petals
in length; pistil pubescent at the base, longer than the
stamens.
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