70 DIALYPETALOUS EXOGENS 



1. G. TRIACANTHOS, L. Thorns stout, mostly triple; leaflets linear 

 or lance-oblong, somewhat serrate ; legumes oblong, thin, curly or 

 wavy, many-seeded. 

 THREE-THORNED GLEDITSCHIA. Honey-Locust. 



Stem 40 to 60 feet high. Leaflets an inch or inch and half long. Flowers yel- 

 lowish-green, small, subspicate. Legumes 6 to 12 or 15 inches long, pulpy between 

 the seeds. 

 Hob. Yards, lawns. Nat. of S. Western States.. Fl. July. Fr. Sept, 



Obs. This is occasionally cultivated, as a shade tree ; and has been 

 used for hedging, at the South and North, but rarely, if ever, in 

 this County. 



ORDER XXXV. ROSATEAE. 



Trees, shrubs, or herbs ; leaves alternate, stipulate ; flowers regular; stamens dis- 

 tinct, inserted on the calyx, mostly numerous ; pistils 1 to many, free, or combined 

 with the calyx-tube; seeds 1 or few in each ovary, without albumen; radicle 

 straight. 



This Order is remarkable for the amount and variety of its esculent products. 

 Many of the fruits are valuable, and some of them eminently delieiotis ; while 

 the type of the Order (Rosa) is by universal consent regarded as the Queen of 

 Beauty, among./Zwers. A few of the drupaceous species contain a somewhat dan- 

 gerous quantity of Prussic Add, in the nuts and leaves ; but in the Peach, for in 

 stance, there is just enough of that formidable ingredient to give to the pulp an 

 exquisite flavor,* and the fleshy or succulent fruits of the Order are, almost 

 without exception, innocent and wholesome. 



SUBORDER I. AMYGDA V LEAE. 



Trees, or sJirubs; leaves simple ; stipules free', ovary solitary, free from the decid- 

 uous calyx, with 2 suspended collateral ovuks, and a terminal style ; fruit a drupe, 

 mostly 1-seeded by abortion. 



f Nut with the surface rugosdy furrowed. 

 HO. PER'SICA, Tournef. 



[A name derived from Persia, its native country.] 



Calyx tubular, with 5 spreading segments. Drupe oval, tomentose 

 or smooth, the succulent pulp adherent, or separable from the nut. 

 Small trees : leaves oblong-lanceolate, serrate, conduplicate in the 

 bud ; flowers solitary or in pairs, subsessile, preceding the leaves. 



1. P. VULG\RIS, Mill. Fruit densely tomentose. 

 COMMON PERSIC A. Peach. Peach-tree. 



Stem 8 to 12 or 15 feet high, branching. Leaves 3 to 5 or 6 inches long; petioles 

 about half an inch in length, channelled above, and glandular near the leaf. 

 Flowers pale-red or purplish. Drupe 1 to 2 inches, or more, in diameter, with the 

 pulp white, yellow, or reddish, adherent to the nut (clingstone), or separable from 

 it (freestone). 



* Judging from observation, it would seem to be not generally known to our 

 Pastry Cooks, that a Peach Pie baked with the fruit whoU (i. e. simply pared, but 

 the nut left in the Peach) is vastly superior to one made of the mere fleshy portion, 

 cut in pieces. The process of baking &s I suppose elicits the prussic acid from 

 the seed of the peach, and diffuses it through the pulp, imparting to it a sprightly 

 and delicious flavor, far beyond what it possesses when the stone is previously 

 rejected. 



