Prunus persica ‘White China’

Horticultural & Botanical History

No additional data.

History at Camden Park

Listed in an Addendum to the 1857 catalogue as ‘White China peach’ [Peach no.18/1857]

Notes

The only China peach listed in the early English Pomological literature, other than the double-flowered, is the ‘Flat Peach of China’, synonyms ‘China Peach’ and ‘Java Peach’. ‘Flowers large. The Fruit of this most singular peach is flatted, and completely concave at both the apex and the stalk. It is about two inches and a half in diameter, and scarcely three quarters of an inch thick, through the eye to the stalk, which thickness consists only of the stone and skin. The crown of the fruit looks like a broad and rather hollow eye, of an irregular five-angled shape, surrounded by the appearance of the remains of the segments of a calyx: the whole surface of this eye is roughly marked with small irregular warted lines, like the crown of a Medlar. The colour of the Skin is pale yellow, mottled or speckled with red on the part exposed to the sun. Flesh pale yellow, having a beautiful radiated circle of red surrounding the stone, and extending far into the fruit. The consistence and flavour of the flesh is that of a good melting peach, being sweet and juicy, with a little noyeau flavour. It first ripened its fruit in this country at Thames Ditton, and was sent to the Horticultural Society by John Braddick, Esq., in 1819.’ [George Lindley – Orchard Guide p.247/1831]. This is unlikely to be Macarthur’s ‘White China’.