CHAP. III.] AMYGDALE^. 61 



part cut into five teeth or lobes, and it is lined 

 by the dilated disk. There are five petals, and 

 about twenty stamens, both inserted in the 

 lining of the calyx. The anthers are innate, 

 and they differ from most of the other plants 

 yet described in being only one-celled. The ovary 

 is also only one- celled, and there are generally 

 two ovules, though the plant rarely ripens more 

 tlian one seed. The leaves are simple, and 

 they have very small stipules. When the petals 

 drop, the ovary appears covered with a thick 

 tough downy pericarp, within which is the 

 hard stone or nut, the kernel or almond of which 

 is the seed. 



The Peach (Persica vidians) was formerly 

 included in the same genus as the almond ; and 

 in fact there is but little botanical difference. 

 The flow^ers are the same both in construction 

 and appearance ; and the leaves are simple like 

 those of the almond, and, like them, they are 

 conduplicate (that is, folded together at the mid- 

 rib) when young. The only difference indeed is in 

 the fruit ; for, as everybody knows, the stone 

 of the peach has not a dry tough covering, like 

 that of the almond, but a soft and melting one 

 full of juice, and the stone itself is of a harder 

 consistence, and deeply furrowed, instead of being 

 only slightly pitted. The fruit of the peach has 

 thus a fleshy pericarp, the pulp or sarcocarp of 



