340 CARDINAL GROSBEAK. 



wings and the lower coverts are pale vermillion, and the inner edges of 

 the quills are of the same tint, but paler. The parts surrounding the 

 base of the bill, which are black in the male, are blackish-grey, and the 

 lower parts in general are pale greyish-brown. 

 Length 7^ inches. 



The Wild Almond. 



Prunus CAEOLiNiANA, JVUld. Sp. PL vol. ii. p. 987. Pursh. Fl. Amer. Sept. vol. i. 

 p, 330. — IcosANDRiA MoNOGYNiA, Linn. RosacEjE, Juss. 



Flowers in racemes ; leaves evergreen, oblong-lanceolate, mucronate, 

 serrate, without glands at the base. The Wild Almond is altogether a 

 southern tree. Its height now and then is as much as twenty-five feet, 

 the stem in that case being a foot or more in diameter. The usual 

 rounded form of its top, and the persistence of its foliage, together with 

 its white flowers, and dark coloured fruits, render it a very agreeable ob- 

 ject. Many are planted around the plantation grounds or the gardens of 

 our southern cities, on account of their beautiful appearance. The fruits 

 are greedily devoured by many species of birds, but are unpalatable to 

 man. I have not observed it to the east of Virginia, nor farther west 

 than the town of Memphis on the Mississippi. The wood is seldom ap- 

 plied to any useful purpose. 



i 



