INTEODUCTIOK. ] 1 



The botanical name of the peach is best known as 

 Amygdalus Persica, though the late authorities unite 

 the Peach, Apricot, Plum, and Cherry, all in one genus, 

 under Prunus. For the purposes of the present work, 

 we retain the older name, Amygdahis, which is a genus 

 of the Natural Order Hosaoece, and under the Linnean 

 classification, is placed in the class and order leosandria 

 Monogynia. The genus consists of trees or shrubs, with 

 simple leaves. Calyx with a bell-shaped tube, and five 

 spreading lobes, deciduous. Petals five, inserted at the 

 throat of the calyx tube. Stamens numerous, with slen- 

 der filaments. Pistil solitary, with a single style. Fruit 

 a fleshy drupe, usually velvety, with a bony putamen, or 

 etone, much roughened with wrinkles and holes or 

 grooves ;* the kernel, or seed, proper, having the flavor 

 of prussic acid. There are ten species of the genus, the 

 most important of which are 



Amygdalus Persica. — The Peach. Drupe fleshy, and' 

 indehiscent. Introduced from Persia, but unknown in 

 the wild state, and is supposed to have oi-iginated from 

 the Almond. The flesh in some varieties readily separates 

 from the stone (free stones), and in others it adheres with 

 moie or less firmness (clings). A smooth variety, var. 

 laeviS) is the Nectarine ; a double-flowering one is culti- 

 vated for ornament, and a variety, with the fruit curi- 

 ously compressed, is the Flat Peach, of China. 



A. commonis. — Almond. The drupe dry, and ir- 

 regularly dehiscent (as it is in all the following species) ; 

 leaves oblong, lanceolate ; calyx bell-shaped. Tree twenty 

 or more feet high. Native of Mauritinia, and the moun- 

 tainous parts of Asia. There are numerous varieties, with 

 sweet and bitter kernels. 



* The name Amygdalus has reference to this character of the stone, It being 

 derlYed from the Greek word to lacerate. 



