406 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



or elonj^ated stone, with a smooth or wrinkled surface, containing 

 one or two descending seeds, enclosing in their coats a large fleshy 

 fxall'iiiniuDUs' embryo. Primus proper consists of trees or shrubs 

 frcuii the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, with alter- 

 nate simple petiolate leaves, at whose bases are two lateral stipules ; 

 tlu' blade is convolute in the bud. The flowers arise before or at the 

 same time as the buds ; they are solitary, in pairs, or in short few- 

 llowered racemes, usually evolved from scaly buds.' About a score 

 of species are known.' 



In the genus Primus, botanists are generally agreed in including 

 as so many sections the following types, which are sometimes con- 

 sidered as distinct genera. 



1. The Apricots' (Fr., Abricotiers) possess a short rather broad 

 floral receptacle, and a fruit with a velvety epicarp, pulpy flesh, and 

 a smooth or wrinkled stone with a longitudinal groove down each 

 edge. Here, too, the leaves are convolute in prsefoliation, and the 

 flowers, pedicellate or subsessile, come out before the leaves from 

 the scaly buds which protected them during the winter. The two 

 or three known species are natives of temperate Asia, except one 

 which comes from America.^ 



;2. The Peaches^ (Fr., Peckers — fig. 479) have a more or less elon- 

 gated, sometimes tubular, receptacle. The fruit is velvety on the 

 surface, with a more or less fleshy succulent mesocarp, and a very 

 hard stone much wrinkled on the surface. The vernation of the 

 leaves" is conduplicate (fig. 479), and the flowers behave like those 



papillute longitudinal lips. In certain Alir.ond 

 ll'jWLTS we have seen these bearing two supple- 

 mentary ovules above the normal ones, each sur- 

 mounted by a vertical process of the placenta 

 {Ailanaonia, ix. 152, t. iii. lig. 2). 



' That is, when adult, for we may say that the 

 albumen is double, as in Nymplxta, at an earlier 

 age. In cultivation we not unfieijuently find 

 embryos of Primus with three equal or unequal 

 Cotyledons. 



* Usually a little before. 



» Skh.. DC. op. cit., 532.— DC, Fl. Fr., iv. 



483.— GuEjf. & GoDR., Fl. de Fr., i. 513. 



l.v.uf.n.. fr. Fl. 7^y.^.?., t. 13.— Spach, op. cit., 

 :'.'.»2.— L.IIU., /'/. Cochinch., ed. 1790, 317.— 

 KoXB., Fl. Ind., \\.hOO.—}Aiq.,FLIn<l.-Bat.,\. 

 p. 1, 363.— Tonu. & fJu., Fl. S. Amer., i. 40G.— 

 A. i.\v.h\,Mfin.ofBot., ed.v.l 17; Proceed. Amer. 

 dead., vii. 337.— I'll APM., Fl. S. Unit.-States, 



119.— H. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Spec., vi. 190, t. 

 563.— C Gat, Fl. Chil., ii. 262.— Walp., Pep., 

 ii. 8 ; Aim., ii. 272 ; iv. 651. 



•* Armeniaca T., op. cit., 623, t. 399. — J., 

 Gen., 341. — Lamk., Diet., i. 1. — DC, op. cit., 

 531.— Spach, op. cit., 388. 



* DC, loc. cit. — LiNDL., Bot. Peg., t. 1243. 

 — C Gat, Fl. Chil, 263.— Walp., Ann., ii. 

 464.— Lamk., Diet., i. 98. 



•^ Peririca T., op. cit., 624, t. 400. — Lamk., 

 Diet., i. 98; Suppl., iv. 336.— DC, op. cit., 531. 

 — Spacu, op. cit., 379. — Trichocarpm Neck., 

 Elem., n. 718. 



' These are provided with glands in this sec- 

 tion, usually better developed than in any of the 

 others of this genus. Some occupy the apices of 

 the teeth of the limb, while others, much larger, 

 are borne on the sides of the top of the petiole 

 (fig. 479). 



