Genus AMYGDALUS, Tourn. 
Rosaces. Icosandria Monogynia. 
Syst. Nat. Syst. Nat. 
Synonymes. 
Amygdalus, Persica, Of Authors. 
Derivations. Amygdalus is derived from the Greek amygdak, an almond. Martinius suspects that it comes from a 
Hebrew word, signifying vigilant ; because its early flowers announce the return of spring. Persica is the name of the peach, 
and is so called because that fruit was originally thought to be brought into Europe from Persia. 
Distinctive Characters. Flowers regular. Calyx, in most cases, with 5 lobes, the odd one posterior to the 
axis of inflorescence. Petals and stamens arising from the calyx. Stamens, for the most part, nume- 
rous. Ovaries many, several, or solitary ; each of 1 cell, that includes, in most cases, 1 ovule ; in 
some, 1 to many ovules. Style lateral or terminal. Leaves alternate, in nearly all stipulate ; pin- 
nately divided, or simple. Be Candolle and Lindley. 
HE genus Amygdalus belongs to the same natural family as the 
rose, and other trees which produce the most useful and 
agreeable fruits of the temperate countries of the globe. The 
fruit-bearing species and the rose have followed man from the 
earliest periods of civilization, and perhaps have been more 
studied, and consequently better known, than any other ligneous 
plants. The medicinal properties of several of the species are remarkable, from 
the circumstance of their yielding prussic acid; while others produce a gum 
nearly allied to gum Arabic, which indicates a degree of affinity between the 
family to which they belong, and the order Leguminaceae. "There are two 
characteristics of this order," says Loudon, " with reference to its cultivation, 
which are of great importance to the gardener. The first is, the liability of 
almost all the species to sport, and produce varieties differing, in many cases, 
more from one another, than they differ from other species : and the second is, 
that they are remarkably subject to the attacks of insects and diseases." 
Modern botanists have thought proper to divide this genus, on account of cer- 
tain technical distinctions in the fruit, which will probably be rejected, when, in 
consequence of extended experience and an improved knowledge of vegetable 
physiology, a more enlarged view shall be taken of the subject of establishing 
genera and species. The almond was included by LinnsBus in the same genus 
with the peach, of which it is doubtless, the parent, as trees have been found 
with almonds in a state of transition to peaches. The nectarine he only con- 
sidered as a variety of the peach, and numerous instances are on record of both 
fruits growing upon the same tree, even on the same branch, and one case has 
occurred of a single fruit partaking of the nature of both. 
