AMYGDALUS COMMUNIS-COMMON ALMOND, 



CLASS, ICO8AXDRIA ; ORDER, MONOGYNIA. 

 NATURAL ORDER, ROSACE/B 



y. CHAR. Calyx quinquefid, inferior. Petals five. Drupe, having 

 a shell perforated with pores. Skin pubescent. SPE. CHAR. Lower 

 serratures of the leaves glandulous. The flowers sessile, twin. 



The almond tree is a native of Tripoli, in Africa, though common 

 to the other Barbary States, Persia and Syria. In the south of 

 Europe it is cultivated to a great extent, and richly repays the labor 

 bestowed upon it. Much attention has also been paid to it, since 

 its introduction into the United States ; the fruit however, is not as 

 good as that imported, and in the northern and middle sections of 

 the Union, it rarely comes to perfection at all. The tree is from 

 fifteen to twenty feet high, and divides into numerous spreading 

 branches. The leaves stand on short footstalks, are about three 

 inches long and three quarters of an inch broad, elliptical, pointed 

 at both ends, veined and minutely serrated, with the lower teeth 

 and leaf stalks glandular, and are of a bright green color. The flowers 

 are large, of a pale red color, varying to white, with very short stalks, 

 and blossoms longer than the cup that contains them; they are 

 placed in numerous pairs upon the branches. The fruit is of the 

 peach kind ; the outer covering thin, tough, dry and marked with a 

 long furrow where it opens when fully ripe ; inside this is the rough 

 shell containing the almond. 



