Hynes was grown about 1877 by E. F. Hynes, West Plains, Missouri. Its parentage is unknown. The variety soon became disseminated as a valuable early, commercial peach. At first it was known as Hynes Surprise but gradually the name has been shortened to Hynes. The late S. D. Willard, Geneva, New York, grew and recommended this variety for a number of years and by some has been given the credit of having originated and introduced it. The American Pomological Society put Hynes on its fruit-list in 1899. [Illustration: HYNES] Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, open-topped, hardy, medium in productiveness; trunk thick; branches stocky, smooth, reddish-brown with a small amount of ash-gray; branchlets long, with internodes of medium length, dark red intermingled with olive-green, glossy, smooth, glabrous, with conspicuous, large lenticels. Leaves six and one-half inches long, about one and one-half inches wide, oval to obovate-lanceolate, leathery, dull, dark green, smooth; lower surface grayish-green; apex tapering to a long, narrow point; margin finely serrate, tipped with reddish-brown glands; petiole three-eighths inch long, with one to five small, globose, brownish-yellow glands variable in position. Flower-buds hardy, small, short, obtuse, plump, slightly pubescent, usually appressed; blossoms appear in mid-season; flowers dark pink at the center, light pink near the edges, often in twos; pedicels short, medium to thick, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube reddish-green, greenish-yellow within, campanulate, glabrous; calyx-lobes short, medium to broad, obtuse, glabrous within, pubescent without; petals broadly oval, irregular in outline, tapering to claws often red at the base; filaments one-half inch long, shorter than the petals; pistil pubescent near the base, equal to the stamens in length. Fruit matures early; two and one-half inches long, two and one-fourth inches wide, round-oblate, with halves usually equal; cavity wide, flaring; suture shallow, becoming deeper near the tip; apex flattened or roundish, ending abruptly in a short, sharp point; color greenish or creamy-white, with a dull, dark red blush, splashed and mottled with carmine; pubescence thin, short, fine; skin thin, tender, variable in adherence to the pulp; flesh greenish-white, with a red stain under the skin and often rayed with red about the pit, juicy, stringy, tender and melting, sweet, mild; fair to good in quality; stone nearly free, one and one-fourth inches long, seven-eighths inch wide, bulged on one side, ovate, very plump, with surfaces pitted and with short, narrow grooves; ventral suture furrowed, very deeply grooved at the edges; dorsal suture wide, deeply grooved. ILLINOIS