512 XEW EXGLAXD TREES IX WIXTER, 



PEACH 



Prunus Persica (L.) Stokes. 

 A))ii/[jiloJus Persica L. 



H VBIT A small tree g-enfrally under 20 ft. in height with a trunk 



diameter of abuut 6 inches: trunk low with spreading- limbs and ascend- 

 ing branchlets forming- a low broad rounded head. 



3 ^RK Dark reddish-brown, smooth, with prominent horizontally 



elongated lenticels, becoming roughened and scaly at base. 



TAVIGS Of medium thickness, smooth and very shiny, greenish to 



bright reddish-purple, often green below and red above 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. 



LEAF-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 connecti(:in with the crdlateral buds when these are present. BUNDLE- 

 SCARS — 3, uftcn inconspicuous. 



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

 mm. long, densely- pale-wrn.iUy at least tri-ward apex and within, more 

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

 these genera 11 >■ stout flo\%'er buds in sharp contrast to the narro^u'er 

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

 floTS'er buds i ; terminal bud present often -^'ith one or more lateral 

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

 and generally indistinct and covered with grayish wool. 



PRl'lT — A large downy drupe with an irregularly pitted stone. 



COMPARISON'S — 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. 



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

 fruit, naturalized throughout the greater portion of the southern 

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

 northern states. 



AVOOD — 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. 



