Genus AMYGDALUS, Tourn. 



Rosacea;. Icosandria Monogynia. 



Sysl. Nal. Si/at. Nai. 



Synonymes. 

 Amrjgdalus, Persica, Of Authors. 



Derivations. Amygdalus is derived from Ihe Greek amygdale, an almond. Marlinius suspects that it comes from a 

 Hebrew word, signifying vigilant ; because its early flowers announce the return of spring. Persica is the name of the ixKich, 

 and ia so called because that fruit was originally thought to be brought into Europe from Persia. 



Distinctive Characters. Flowers re^ilar. Calyx, in most cases, with 5 lobes, the odd one posterior to the 

 axis of inflorescence. Petals and stamens arising from the calyx. Stamens, for the most part, nume- 

 rous. Ovaries many, several, or solitary; each of 1 cell, that includes, in most cases, 1 ovule; in 

 some, 1 to many ovules. Style lateral or terminal. Leaves alternate, in nearly all stipulate ; pin- 

 nately divided, or simple. De Candolle and Lindley. 



|HE genus Amygdalus belongs to the same natural family as the 

 rose, and other trees which produce the most useful and 

 agreeable fruits of the temperate countries of the globe. The 

 fruit-bearing species and the rose have followed man from the 

 earliest periods of civilization, and perhaps have been more 

 studied, and consequently better known, than any other ligneous 

 plants. The medicinal properties of several of the species are remarkable, from 

 the circumstance of their yielding prussic acid; while others produce a gum 

 nearly allied to gum Arabic, which indicates a degree of affinity between the 

 family to which they belong, and the order Leguminaceae. "There are two 

 characteristics of this order," says Loudon, " with reference to its cultivation, 

 which are of great importance to the gardener. The first is, the liability of 

 almost all the species to sport, and produce varieties differing, in many cases, 

 more from one another, than they differ from other species : and the second is, 

 that they are remarkably subject to the attacks of insects and diseases." 



Modern botanists have thought proper to divide this genus, on account of cer- 

 tain technical distinctions in the fruit, which will probably be rejected, when, in 

 consequence of extended experience and an improved knowledge of vegetable 

 physiology, a more enlarged view shall be taken of the subject of establishing 

 genera and species. The almond was included by Linnaeus in the same genus 

 with the peach, of which it is doubtless, the parent, as trees have been found 

 with almonds in a state of transition to peaches. The nectarine he only con- 

 sidered as a variety of the peach, and numerous instances are on record of both 

 fruits growing upon the same tree, even on the same branch, and one case has 

 occurred of a single fruit partaking of the nature of both. 



