144 ROSE FAMILY. 



seini-(iouble (very rarely single) flowers, usually in twos or threes, on 

 stalks about an inch long, appearing with the leaves ; leaves ovate-lance- 

 olate, smooth, finely serrate. Generally, but erroneously, called 1'. n\na 

 in gardens. 



P. triloba, Lindl. Flowering Almond. Cult, from China ; bush with 

 nearly sessile, usually very double (rarely semi-double) flowers, pink or 

 rose-colored, borne singly and appearing before the leaves ; the latter 

 broadly ovate or obovate, and rather abruptly pointed, slightly hairy, 

 coarsely toothed or even jagged above, sometimes obscurely three-lobed. 



* * Small trees, bearing fruit of commercial value. 



P. Amygdalus, Baill. The Common Almond. Cult, from the Orient ; 

 tree 10° to 20° high, with large sessile flowers, which appear before the 

 leaves and persist for many days ; leaves lanceolate, firm, and very closely 

 serrate ; fruit with a dry flesh, which finally splits away, freeing the large 

 softish stone, which is the Almond of commerce. 



P. Persica, Sieb. & Zucc. Peach. From China ; differs from the last 

 in its thinner, broader, and more coarsely serrate leaves and thick-fleshed, 

 edible fruit, and mostly smaller, harder, and more deeply marked stone. 

 Var. necturlna, Maxim. The Nectarine. Has a smooth fruit, usually 

 smaller. Var. platycdrpa is the Peen-to or Flat Peach of the S. 



P. Simbnii, Carr. Simon or Apricot Plum. Small, fastigiate tree 

 from China, cult, for its large, depressed, handsome maroon-red smooth 

 fruits ; flowers pink-white, very short-stalked, borne singly or in pairs 

 before the leaves appear ; leaves lance-oblong or lance-obovate, thick 

 and firm, dull, conduplicate, closely serrate ; flesh of the very firm fruit 

 yellow, and clinging to the small spongy-roughened pit. 



§ 2. Apricots. Flowers viuch as iw § 1 ; leaves convolute or rolled tip 

 in the bud; fruit pubescent or smooth, the stone compressed, bearing 

 one prominent margin, and either smoothed or slightly roughened. 



P. Armenidca, Linn. Common Apricot. Native of China ; flowers 

 pink-white, se-ssile and appearing singly before the leaves ; the latter 

 varying from ovate to round-ovate, prominently pointed and toothed, and 

 long-stalked ; fruit ripening (in the N.) in July and August, smooth, the 

 large, flat, smooth stone nearly or quite free. The Russian Apricot is a 

 hardy race of this. 



P. dasycdrpa, Ehrh. Black or Purple Apricot. Small tree, much 

 like the last, but the flowers prominently stalked ; the leaves thinner and 

 narrower, with smaller serratures ; fruit dull purple and fuzzy, the flesh 

 clinging to the thick, scarcely margined, pubescent stone. Nativity 

 unknown. 



§ 3. Plums, etc. Flowers stalked in umbel-like f asides, appearing either 

 before or with the leaves ; leaves either conduplicate or convolute in the 

 bud ; fruit more or less globular and covered with a bloom, smooth, with 

 a compressed mostly smooth stone. 



* Small trees ; plums. 



•«- Exotic or foreign species. 



P. spinosa, Linn. A low and spreading, thorny, European tree, appear- 

 ing in this country chiefly in the double-flowered variety ; flowers borne 

 singly or in pairs (rarely in 3's), very small as compared with the garden 

 Plum ; leaves small and mostly obovate and obtuse (or in some forms 

 very blunt-pointed), finely and doubly serrate, rugose, and more or less 

 hairy beneath ; fruit small and round, purple, scarcely edible. 



P. domestica, Linn. Common Plum. Probably Asian ; flowers showy 

 (white), more or less fascicled; leaves large, ovate, or obovate usually, 



