CHAPTER XTII 



THE DRIPE-FIWITS 



The apricot, cherry, peach, nectarine, plum, and the almond, 

 wliieh passes as a nut rather than a fruit, constituting the drupe- 

 fruits, belong to one genus, Pruiuis, of the Order Rosacete. 

 Perhaps no other genus contains as many distinct natural 

 esculents as Prunus. There are in the genus between forty and 

 fifty species of fruits cultivated widely and commonly enough 

 to be of commercial importance. Perhaps there are a hundred 

 more which have possibilities for further domestication either 

 for their own products or for hybridization. Some students of 

 the drupe-fruits divide the genus by putting peaches and 

 almonds in a group by themselves, making the genus AmygdaluSy 

 but nearly all pomologists prefer to place all of the drupes in 

 Prunus. 



179. The genus Prunus is sharply distinguished from any 

 other genera in Rosacea^ and from all other cultivated fruits. 

 The conspicuous characters of Prunus are : 



Trees or shrubs with astringent properties. Leaves conduplicate or con- 

 volute in the bud, alternate, simple, serrate, petiolate, deciduous or per- 

 sistent; stipules free from the petiole, lanceolate, glandular, deciduous. 

 Flowers solitary, in corymbs or racemes, appearing from separate buds 

 before, with, or after the leaves; calyx five-lobed ; tube obconic or tubular, 

 deciduous; stamens 15 to 20, inserted with the petals in three rows; pistils 

 with one carpel or rarely with two or more carpels; ovary inserted in the 

 bottom of the calyx-tube, one-celled. Fruit a drupe, with a glaucous or 

 pubescent outer covering, a pulpy, dry or leathery flesh covering a bony, 

 smooth or rugose pit or stone which is one- or rarely two-seeded. 



180. The several fruits in Prunus distinguished. — As one 

 names the drupe-fruits, — apricot, cherry, peach, nectarine, and 

 plum — it would seem that no pomologist could possibly mistake 

 any one of them for another, but some species of Prunus are 

 cherries to some and plums to others; and some w^estern desert 



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