378 TREES IN WINTER 



PEACH 



Prunus Persica (L.) Stokes. 

 Amygdalus Persica L. 



HABIT— A small tree g-enerally under 20 ft. in lieight with a trunk 

 diameter of about 6 inches; trunk low with spreadinj:^- limbs and ascend- 

 ing- branchlets forming a low broad rounded head. 



BARK — Dark reddish-brown, smooth, with prominent horizontally- 

 elongated lenticels, becoming roughened and scaly at base. 



TWIGS — Of medium thickness, smooth and very shiny, greenish to 

 bright reddish-purple, often green below and red abave toward the light, 

 becoming redder as spring approaches; on rapidly grown shoots branches 

 sometimes produced the same season; crushed twigs with odor and taste 

 of bitter almonds. LENTICELS — very numerous and very minute pale 

 dots, in reality stomata, best seen with hand-lens and on reddish 

 portions of twigs, only part of them elongating with age. PITH — rather 

 wide, often somewhat 5-pointed, whitish or tinged with brown. 



liEAF-SCARS — Alternate, more than 2-ranked, elliptical to semi- 

 oval, strongly raised, often more or less decurrent. STIPULE-SCARS — 

 behind and above leaf-scars or raised on persistent bases of stipules, 

 often indistinct and readily confused with broken bud-scales; often 

 a small raised leaf-scar above and on either side of the main leaf-scar 

 in connection with the collateral buds when these are present. BUNDLE- 

 SCARS — 3, often inconspicuous. 



BUDS — Ovate, rounded at apex or blunt-pointed, generally under 5 

 mm. long, densely pale-woolly at least toward apex and within, more 

 or less appressed, 1 or 2 collateral buds often present at a node — 

 these generally stout flower buds in sharp contrast to the narrower 

 leaf bud between (in the group of three buds on twig in plate all are 

 flower buds); terminal bud present often with one or more lateral 

 buds adjacent. BUD-SCALES — reddish-brown, often with ragged edges 

 and generally indistinct and covered with grayish wool. 



FRUIT — A large downy drupe with an irregularly pitted stone. 



COMPARISONS — The dense woolliness of its stout buds and the very 

 numerous and extremely minute pale dots on its highly colored and 

 polished twigs readily distinguish the Peach from its near relatives. 



DISTRIBUTION — A native of Asia, cultivated in this country for its 

 fruit, naturalized throughout the greater portion of the northern states 

 and spontaneous in waste places and on road-sides in the northern 

 states. 



-WOOD — Rather soft, close-grained and light brown. The seeds 

 develop considerable hydrocyanic acid and are used in the manufacture 

 of a substitute for oil of bitter almonds. 



