CHAP. XLII. 



ROSA'CE^E. y/RMENTACA. 



683 



401 



Garden. The best variety for producing fruit, as a standard, is the Breda 

 apricot. (Enci/c. of (lard., ed. 1835, p. 918.) It is also u very handsome- 

 growing plant, and its blossom buds, before they are expanded, are of a most 

 beautiful and brilliant scarlet. There is a blotched-leaved variety of this kind 

 of apricot. Price of plants the same as of those of the almond. 



2. A. DASYCA'RPA Pers. The thick-fruited Apricot Tree. 



Identification. Pers. Syn., 2. p. 36. ; Dec. Proil., 2. p. 532. ; Don's Mill.. 2. p. 4!>7. 



Synonymes. A. atropurpitrea I.ais. in N. Du Ham., 5. p. 1"2. ; Prunus dasycarpa Ehrh. Beitr , tV 



p. 91). ; P. ^rmenlaca irigra Desf. Cat., ed 2. p. 206. ; the black Apricot. 

 Engravings. N. Du Ham., 5. t. 51. f. 1. ; Lodd. Bot. Cab., t. VIM. ; and our figs. 400, 401 



Spec. Char., Sfc. Leaves ovate, acuminate, doubly 



serrate. Petioles glanded. Flowers upon thread- 

 shaped pedicels. In the flow- 

 ers of a plant in the Geneva 

 Botanic Garden, the calyx 

 was purple, and 6-lobed; the 

 petals were 6 ; and the sta- 

 mens 24. Native country not 

 known. (Dec. Prod., ii. p. 

 352.) A tree with a twisted 



trunk, resembling the common apricot, but smaller. 

 Introduced in 1800, and flowering in April. It merits 

 cultivation for its flowers, which are generally white, 

 but which, in this country, from the earliness of their 

 appearance, are not often succeeded by fruit, unless the 

 tree is planted against a wall, when it can be protected 



by netting. Trees of this kind are particularly desirable as standards among 



evergreens, planted on warm sandy declivities 



facing the south. They are also very desirable 



in the composition of spring-flowering hedges. 



Variety. 



H A. d. 2 persicifolia Lois. (N. Du Ham., 

 5. p. 172. t. 52. f. 1. ; and our Jig. 402.) 

 Abricot noir a Feuilles de Pecher, 

 Fr. The Peach-leaved thick-fruited 

 Apricot. Leaves ovate and short, 

 or lanceolate, with small lobes. Flesh 

 of the fruit red, variegated with pale 

 yellow. In Don's Miller, this kind is 

 made a species. In the Nouveau Du 

 Hamel, it is stated to be a very slight 

 variety, which can only be continued 

 by budding. 



3. A. (v.) SIBI'RICA Pers. The Siberian Apricot Tree. 



Identification. Pers. Syn., 2. p 36. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 532. ; Don's Mill., 2. p. 498. 



Synonyme. Prunus sibirica Lin. Sp., 679. 



Engravings. Ammanri Stirp. Ruth., 272. t. 29. ; Pall. Fl. Ross., 1. t. 8. ; and our plate in Vol. II. 



Spec. Char., $c. Leaves ovate acuminate, of the form of those of the 

 beech. The petioles long and glandless. Fruit small. A native of moun- 

 tainous districts in the most remote parts of Siberia. Persoon has stated 

 (Syn., ii. p. 36.) that it varies with leaves linear-lanceolate. (Dec. Prod., 

 ii. p. 532.) A tree, having the general appearance of the common apricot, 

 but smaller in its parts. According to Pallas, it is chiefly found in the 

 Russian empire, on the mountains of Dahuria, growing upon the face of 

 perpendicular rocks exposed to the sun. These low trees, in such situa- 

 tions, do not attain a greater height than that of a man ; but they have 

 trunks the thickness of the wrist, a rough and black bark, and hard wood. 

 The Siberian apricot flowers in May, about the same time as the /?hodo- 



