ARMENIACA, APRICOT TREE. 133 



SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 



I. APRICOT TREE small fruit, round, part red, part golden-yellow, ripens prematurely. 



Early APRICOT. Musky early APRICOT. (PL /.) 



The shoots of the early apricot tree are large, red on the side toward the sun, green 

 on the shaded side. Around the time that they emerge, they are greenish and speckled 

 with small gray spots. 



The buds are large, elongated, pointed, triple along almost the entire length of the 

 shoot, and not far apart from one another. 



The leaves are a beautiful green, wide, concave or spoon-shaped, denticulate & 

 bidenticulate, but not very deeply. They're about three-&-a-half inches wide and the 

 same in length. The stalk is twelve to eighteen lignes long and dark red on the side 

 exposed to the sun. The midrib & sometimes the lateral veins are lightly tinged with red. 

 Some of the latter appear in alternate sequence, others are opposite. There are five or six 

 principal ones on both sides of the midrib. They extend to the margins of the leaf where 

 they form curved lines. They're very prominent on the outside of the leaf. On the inside 

 they're indicated only by light green lines that have no depth. Since the sequence, 

 number, orientation, &c. of these veins are the same for all kinds of apricot trees, we 

 won't discuss them further. 



The fruit is small and rounded across its diameter that is fifteen lignes by thirteen 

 lignes in height. Good soil & and growing on an espalier sometimes bring about changes 

 in its proportions & its volume. There are some that are seventeen lignes across the large 

 diameter, fifteen lignes at the small diameter, & thirteen lignes high. A very distinct 

 groove, though closed up & not very deep, divides one of its sides lengthwise. Its stalk, 



