408 GENERAL MORPHOLOGY OF PLANTS 



refers to their introduction from that country. The fruit is 

 downy (except certain smooth varieties known as nectarines) and 

 the stone is corrugated. The flowers of many varieties are con- 

 spicuous and beautiful, though many of the recent valuable 

 varieties have rather inconspicuous flowers because of the small 

 size of the petals. The flower buds and flowers are very sensi- 

 tive to frost and extreme cold weather, and they are easily killed 

 during a severe freeze after the buds have begun to swell. Warm 

 seasons during mid-winter, followed by very low temperature, 

 sometimes kill the flower buds before they open, and late severe 

 frosts in the spring also kill the pistil of very young fruit just 

 before or after the flowers have opened. This limits the suc- 

 cessful culture of peaches to certain sections where natural con- 

 ditions modify the severity of the cold, as near large bodies of 

 water or in protected localities. The best peach-growing sections 

 in the United States are along the eastern and southern shores of 

 Lake Erie and Ontario, and the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, 

 along Long Island Sound, the Atlantic Coast and Chesapeake Bay, 

 in New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, in the milder climates 

 of northern Georgia, Alabama, . outhern Illinois to Kansas and 

 Missouri, and along the Pacific Coast. Plums have a smooth 

 skin and stone and there are a great many cultivated varieties. 

 They are hardier than the peach and thus are cultivated over 

 a much wider area. Prunes are varieties cf plums which are 

 sweet, and are dried with the stone. California is the greatest 

 prune-growing section in this country. Apricots resemble a 

 smooth peach and have a smooth stone like a plum, and in 

 external appearance resemble both a plum and a peach. They 

 were native of China or Japan, are similar to the peach in sen- 

 sitiveness to cold and are not extensively cultivated in this 

 country except in California and in parts of New York. The 

 almond is closely related to the peach and originated from a 

 species (Prunus amygdalinus) probably native to southern 

 Europe. It is chiefly cultivated in the Mediterranean region, 

 and of late years with some success in California. The flowers 

 are like those of the peach. The fruit when young resembles a 



