THE PLUM FAMILY 



AMYGDALACE.E Reichenbach 



HIS family comprises about 6 genera, including over loo species of trees 

 and shrubs, which are widely distributed throughout the world, but are 

 most abundant in the north temperate zone. 



Their bark, leaves, and seed, when crushed in contact with water, 

 develop hydrocyanic acid. They also exude a gum when wounded, and most all 

 of them produce edible fruits and are very ornamental in flower. 



The leaves are alternate, simple, firm and often leathery, sometimes persistent, 

 usually toothed, stalked and stipulate, the teeth and leaf-stalks often glandular, 

 the stipules deciduous. The flowers are regular, usually perfect, in cymes, umbels, 

 corymbs, or racemes; the 5-lobed calyx is inferior, free from the ovary, and de- 

 ciduous; the corolla consists of 5 petals inserted on the disk or calyx-tube; the 

 many stamens are inserted with the petals, their anthers 2-celled; pistils in our 

 genera are soHtar^-, some exotic genera have i to 3; ovary i-celled, containing 2 

 ovules; style simple; stigma small, usually terminal. The fruit is a drupe, with a 

 solitary, suspended seed; endosperm none; the embryo has fleshy cotyledons. 



Fossil leaves and pits found in the Tertiary formations of Europe and North 

 America have been described and classified as belonging to plants of this family. 

 Our arborescent genera are: 



Drupe fleshy. 



Style lateral; stone 5- or 6-ridged and reticulated; drupe smooth. 

 Style terminal. 



Stone coarsely wrinkled and pitted; drupe velvety. 

 Stone smooth or nearly so; drupe smooth. 



Flowers corymbose, appearing before or with the leaves, on branchlets 

 of the previous year. 



1. Chrysobalanus. 



2. Amygdalus. 



3. Pricmis. 



Flowers racemose, appearing after the leaves, on branchlets of the year. 4. Padus. 



Drupe nearly drj'; flowers in axillary racemes; leaves persistent. 



5. Lanrocerasiis. 



I. COCOA PLUM 



GENUS CHRYSOBALANUS LINN^US 

 Species Chrysobalanus Icaco Linnaeus 



LSO called the Gopher plum, this occurs along the coast in peninsular 

 Florida, the West Indies and Mexico to Central America, reaching, in 

 its greatest development, a height of 9 meters, with a trunk diameter 

 of 3 dm., but it is usually a shrub. It is the type species of the genus. 

 The trunk is straight, with thin, scaly bark about 4 mm. thick, and hght 



483 



