99 



N. Ord. ROSACEJE. 

 Tribe Prunece. 



Genus Prunus, Linn. 



99. Primus Amygdalus,* Stokes, Bot. Mat. Med., iii, p. 101 



(1812). 



Almond. 



Syn. Amygdalus communis, Linn, and many authors. A. amara and 

 A. dulcis, DC., Fl. Franc. 



Figures. Woodville, 1. 183 ; Hayne, iv, t. 39 ; Steph. & Ch., t. 43 ; Nees, 

 tt. 312 & 313 ; Berg & Sch., t. 4 d. 



Description. A small tree; bark pale purplish-brown, slightly 

 wrinkled. Leaves broadly or narrowly lanceolate, acute, sharply 

 serrate, thin, bright green, stalked, alternate, fasciculate on the 

 short lateral branchlets, distant on the young terminal ones ; 

 stipules linear, acuminate, sharply serrate, deciduous. Flowers 

 nearly sessile, solitary or few together on the sides of the previous 

 year's branches, appearing just before the leaves, surrounded by a 

 few scaly bracts. Calyx reddish, glabrous, the tube urceolate, the 

 segments 5, broadly oblong, blunt. Petals 5, much larger than the 

 calyx-segments, but variable in size, ovate, thin, concave, bright 

 pale pink. Stamens about 30, about half the length of the petals, 

 inserted at the margin of the calyx- tube in two rows. Ovary (and 

 base of simple style) woolly, one-celled, with two ovules attached 

 to the side near the top. Fruit a drupe about 1| inch long, 

 irregularly ovoid, with a furrow down one side, closely downy 

 when young; sarcocarp leathery, irregularly splitting into two valves 

 when ripe and falling away from the stone ; endocarp hard, ovoid, 

 acute, rugged with irregular pits and furrows externally, smooth 

 and shining within. Seed solitary, about 1 inch long, somewhat 

 compressed, pointed at top, blunt at lower end, connected with the 

 side of the endocarp by a broad funicle ; chalaza at the round 



* Amygdalus, the classical name. 



