ARBORETUM AND FRUT1CETUM. PART III. 



* 1. A. VULGA X RIS Lam. The common Apricot Tree. 



Identification. Lam. Diet., 1. p. 2. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 532. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 495. 



Sunonume. Primus Armenlaca Lin. Sp., 679. 



Eravings. N. Du Ham., 1. t. 49. ; and the plate in our Second Volume. 



Spec. Char., $c. Flowers sessile. Leaves heart-shaped or ovate. A native 



of Armenia. (Dec. Prod. y ii. p. 532.) 



Varieties. There are two forms of this kind of apricot, either of which may 

 be considered as the species; and two varieties : 



A. v. I ovahfolia Ser. The oval-leaved common Apricot Tree. Leaves 

 oval, fruit small. (Nois. Jard. Fruit, t. 1. f. 2., t. 2. f. 1, 2.; Lois, in 

 N. Du Ham., 5. t. 50. f 6. ; and our /g. 398.) Synonymes : Abricot 

 Angoumois, A. precoce, A. blanc, Fr. 



*t A. v. 2 cordifolia Ser. The heart-shaped-leaved common Apricot Tree. 

 Leaves heart-shaped, broad. Fruit larger. ( Nois. Jard. Fruit., t. 1 . f. 3., 

 t. 2. f. 3. ; Loisel. in N. Du Ham., 5. p. 167. t. 49. ; and our Jig. 399.) 

 A. v. 3 foliis variegatis Hort. The variegated-leaved common Apricot, 

 t A. v. 4tjlorepleno Hort. The double-blossomed common Apricot. Gros- 

 sier says that the Chinese have a great many varieties of double- 

 blossomed apricots, which they plant on little mounts. 

 Description, %c. A tree, growing rapidly to the height of 20 ft. or 30 ft., 

 with a handsome, spreading, somewhat orbiculate head, and branches fur- 

 nished with numerous 399 



buds, and clothed 

 with large, heart-shap- 

 ed, smooth, shining 

 leaves. The flowers 

 are white, and,appear- 

 ing before the leaves, 

 generally in March, 

 are very ornamental 

 at that season, when 

 few trees are in flower 

 except the almond 



and the sloe. It is a native of Armenia, Caucasus, 

 the Himalayas, China, and Japan, where it forms 

 a large spreading tree. Both in Caucasus and China, it is more fre- 

 quent on mountains than on plains, which affords a proof of its great har- 

 diness ; though in England it seldom ripens it fruit except when trained 

 against a wall. The tree was cultivated by the Romans, and is described by 

 Pliny and Dioscorides ; and, though the first notice of its being in England 

 is in Turner's Herbal, printed in 1562, yet there can be no doubt that it was 

 introduced by the Roman generals. It is now in as universal cultivation for a 

 fruit tree as the peach j and it is better deserving of a place in the shrubbery 

 than that tree, on account of its more vigorous growth, and its much hand- 

 somer general shape, independently of its more beautiful leaves. Very few 

 trees attain the appearance of maturity so soon as the apricot ; a standard 

 10 or 12 years planted, in good loamy rich soil, will grow to the height of 

 20 ft., with a head 25 ft. in diameter, presenting all the appearance of a tree 

 of 20 or 30 years' growth, or of a tree arrived at maturity. Hence the 

 value of this tree in planting small places, which it is desired to make appear 

 large and old. The same remark will apply to most other kinds of fruit trees 

 treated as standards, and to different kinds of Oatae v gus, and all the wild 

 varieties of the rosaceous fruit trees. The grounds of a small villa, planted 

 with such trees alone, would assume quite a different character from those 

 in which such trees were intermixed with rapid-growing sorts. In the former 

 case, there would be unity of expression ; in the latter, nothing, viewed as a 

 whole, but discordance of parts, however much beauty there might be in the 

 trees taken individually. Proofs of the rapid growth of the apricot may be 

 seen in the standard apricot trees in the London Horticultural Society's 



