AMYGDALACEAE. 



167 



Family 9. AMYGDALACEAE Reichb. 



Plum Family. 



Trees or shrubs, the bark exuding gum, the foliage, bark and seeds 

 containing prussic acid, bitter. Leaves alternate, petioled, simple, the 

 small stipules early deciduous, the teeth and petiole often glandular. 

 Flowers regiilar, mostly perfect. Calyx inferior, deciduous, free from the 

 ovary, 5-lobed. Disk annular. Calyx-lobes imbricated in the bud. Petals 

 5, inserted on the calyx. Stamens numerous, inserted with the petals. 

 Pistil 1 in our genera; ovary 1-celled, 2-ovuled; style simple; stig-ma mostly 

 small and capitate. Fruit a drupe. Seed 1, suspended; endosperm none; 

 cotyledons fleshy. About 10 genera and 120 species, widely distributed, 

 most abundant in the north temperate zone. 



1. LAUROCERASUS [Tourn.] Eeichenb. 



Shrubs or trees pervaded with prussic acid. Leaves alternate, persistent; 

 simple, entire or remotely toothed. Flowers perfect, in axillary racemes. 

 Calyx white, its 5 lobes deciduous. Petals 5, white, deciduous. Stamens 15- 

 30; filaments slender, distinct. Ovary sessile, 1-celled; style simple. Ovules 

 2, pendulous. Drupe subglobose or slightly elongated, with a dry exocarp, the 

 stone turgid. Seed solitary. [Laurel Cherry.] About 20 species, natives of 

 warm-temperate and tropical regions. Type species: Laurocerasus Lauro- 

 cerasus (L.) Britton. 



1. Laurocerasus carolini^na (Mill.) 

 Roem. Carolina Laurel-cherry. (Fig. 

 188.) An evergreen tree, sometimes 40° 

 tall, with a slender trunk rarely over 1° 

 thick. Leaves leathery, narrowly elliptic 

 to oblong-lanceolate, sometimes remotely 

 toothed, acuminate at both ends or acute 

 at the base, slightly revolute, lustrous 

 above, dull beneath; petioles 2V'-A" long; 

 racemes shorter than the leaves, rather 

 dense ; pedicels club-shaped, subtended by 

 early deciduous scarious acute bracts; 

 calyx-lobes suborbicular, reflexed; petals 

 boat-shaped, smaller than the sepals; 

 drupes oblong or oval, 5"-7" long, ab- 

 ruptly pointed, black, lustrous; stone 

 ovoid. 



A number of trees in Paget Marsh, 

 1905 ; many cut down by 1913, but numer- 

 ous seedlings observed. Naturalized. Na- 

 tive of the southeastern United States. 

 Flowers in winter and spring. 



Lefroy records the failure of Laurocerasus occidenialis (Sw.) Roemer 

 [Pruniis occidentalis Sw.] and of L. myriifolia (L.) Britton [Prunus sphaero- 

 carpa Sw.], introduced from Trinidad in 1872. 



