96 ROSACEA. 



1—1% inches lone. % ae wide, several of them usually transformed partly or 

 •wholly into smaller leaflets. Flowers small, white, succeeded by flat, crooked, 

 Itanging pods, 12 — 18 inches long, which appear in autumn like large apple-paring* 

 pendant from the branches. 



The Gtmnoolaths Canadensis, Kentucky Cqflee-tree, is occasionally met with in 

 cultivation, but is probably not native in our State. 



Order 39. ROSACEJE .— The Pose Family 



Trees, shrubs or herbs with alternate leaves with stijyules ; regular flowers with nume- 

 rous (rarely few) distinct stamens, inserted on the calyx, and 1 — many pidils. Sepals 

 5, (rarely 3 — 4 — '■%) united at the base, often appearing double by a row of bractlets 

 outside. Petals 5, regular, rarely wanting, inserted with the stamens on the edge 

 of-a disk that lines the calyx tube. Ovaries superior, 1 or several, distinct, 1-celled 

 often cohering to the sides of the calyx and each other. Styles distinct or united. 

 Fruit a drupe, pome, acheuia, or follicle. This important family comprises three 

 principal suborders. 



Sub-order I. AMYG-DALEiE. Almond Family. 



Calyx entirely free from the solitary ovary, deciduous. 

 Style terminal. Fruit a drupe (stone fruit.) — Trees or shrubs, 

 with simple leaves, the bark exuding gum, and the bark, 

 leaves and kernels yielding the peculiar flavor ofprussic acid. 



PRUNUS. Tourn. Plum. 



Calyx 5-cleft, regular, deciduous. Petals 5 spreading. 

 Stamens 15 — 30. Ovary with 2 pendulous ovules. Drupe 

 oval or oblong, fleshy, smooth, usually covered with a glau- 

 cous bloom ; the stone smooth, sharp-edged and pointed, and 

 the margins mostly grooved. — Small trees or shrubs ivith 

 serrate leaves, rolled up in the bud, and white flowers, usually 

 preceding the leaves from lateral buds, the pedicels in simple 

 umbel-like clusters. 



1. P. Americana. Marsh. Wild 'Yellow Plum. Red Plum. 



Leaves ovate or obovate, acuminate, sharply and often doubly serrate.veTy veiny, 

 pmooth when mature; umbels 2— 5 "flowered, drupe roundish-oval, nearly destitute 

 of bloom. 



F.iver banks, and along hedges: common. Flowers in May. Fruit In Aug. A 

 pmall tree 10 — 15 fe t high, much branched and thorny. Leaves '2 — 3 inches long, 

 % as vide. Pdioles % — % inch Long, mo»tly with 2 glands near the summit. 

 Flowers white, preceding the leaves. Fruit % — 1 inch in diameter, yellow or 

 orange often tinged with red, with a yellow pulp and thick, toush skin, pleasant 

 tasted. 



2. P. spinosa, L. Sloe. Black Thorn. 



Branches thorny; Zearesobovate-elliptical, downy beneath, sharply doubly-toothed; 

 peduncles solitary ; calyx companulate; drupe globose. 



Hedgerows and cultivated grounds. Introduced. A thorny ehrub 12 to 15 ieet 

 Itigh, native of Europe. Sparingly naturalized. 



