682 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 
¥ 1. A. vuLea‘ris Lam. The common Apricot Tree. 
Identification. Lam. Dict., 1. p. 2. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 532. ; Don’s Mill., 2. p. 495. 
Synonyme. Prinus Armeniaca Lin. Sp., 679. 
Engravings. N. Du Ham., 1. t. 49.; and the plate in our Second Volume. 
Spec. Char., §c. Flowers sessile. Leaves heart-shaped or ovate. A native 
of Armenia. (Dec. Prod., ii. p. 532.) 
Varieties. There are two forms of this kind of apricot, either of which may 
be considered as the species; and two varieties : — 
* A. v. 1 ovalifolia Ser. The oval-leaved common Apricot Tree. — Leaves 
oval, fruit small. (Nois. Jard. Fruit, t. 1. f. 2., t. 2. f. 1, 2.3 Lois. in 
N. Du Ham., 5. t. 50. 6.; and our fig. 398.) Synonymes: Abricot 
Angoumois, A. précoce, A. blanc, Fr. 
¥ A.v. 2 cordifolia Ser. The heart-shaped-leaved common Apricot Tree. — 
Leaves heart-shaped, broad. Fruit larger. ( Nois. Jard. Fruit., t. 1. f.3., 
t. 2. f. 3.; Loisel. in N. Du Ham., 5. p. 167. t. 49.; and our jig. 399.) 
¥ A. v. 3 foliis variegatis Hort. The variegated-leaved common Apricot. 
¥* A. v. 4 florepleno Hort. The double-blossomed common Apricot. — Gros- 
sier says that the Chinese have a great many varieties of double- 
blossomed apricots, which they plant on little mounts. 
Description, §c. A tree, growing rapidly to the height of 20 ft. or 30 ft., 
with a handsome, spreading, somewhat orbiculate head, and branches fur- 
398 nished with numerous 
, buds, and _ clothed 
with large, heart-shap- 
ed, smooth, shining 
leaves. The flowers 
are white, and,appear- 
ing before the leaves, 
generally in March, 
are very ornamental 
at that season, when 
few trees are in flower Ww NS 
except the almond 8 
and the sloe. It is a native of Armenia, Caucasus, 
the Himalayas, China, and Japan, where it forms 
a large spreading tree. Both in Caucasus and China, it is more fre- 
quent on mountains than on plains, which affords a proof of its great har- 
diness; though in England it seldom ripens it fruit except when trained 
against a wall. The tree was cultivated by the Romans, and is described by 
Pliny and Dioscorides; and, though the first notice of its being in England 
is in Turner’s Herbal, printed in 1562, yet there can be no doubt that it was 
introduced by the Roman generals. It is now in as universal cultivation for a 
fruit tree as the peach; and it is better deserving of a place in the shrubbery 
than that tree, on account of its more vigorous growth, and its much hand- 
somer general shape, independently of its more beautiful leaves. Very few 
trees attain the appearance of maturity so soon as the apricot; a standard 
10 or 12 years planted, in good loamy rich soil, will grow to the height of 
20 ft., with a head 25 ft. in diameter, presenting all the appearance of a tree 
of 20 or 30 years’ growth, or of a tree arrived at maturity. Hence the 
value of this tree in planting small places, which it is desired to make appear 
large and old. The same remark will apply to most other kinds of fruit trees 
treated as standards, and to different kinds of Cratze‘gus, and all the wild 
varieties of the rosaceous fruit trees. The grounds of a small villa, planted 
with such trees alone, would assume quite a different character from those 
in which such trees were intermixed with rapid-growing sorts. In the former 
case, there would be unity of expression; in the latter, nothing, viewed as a 
whole, but discordance of parts, however much beauty there might be in the 
trees taken individually. Proofs of the rapid growth of the apricot may be 
seen in the standard apricot trees in the London Horticultural Society’s 


