152 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. I, No. a 
The so-called wild almond (Prunus andersonii) , chiefly found in Nevada, 
though also occurring along the eastern slope of the Sierras in California, 
is upon careful comparison found to be very closely related to the wild 
apricot ( Prunus eriogyna) of the Colorado Desert in southern California. 
These two species are clearly separated from the peach and almond by the 
characters of the leaves both in vernation and when mature, by floral 
characters, and by the seeds. 
The entire group (the genus Amygdalus of some authors) of the genus 
Prunus which includes the almonds and peaches has leaves folded length¬ 
wise in the bud (conduplicate), the flowers sessile or subsessile, the stones 
rugose and pitted. 
The Nevada wild almond, notwithstanding the fact that it has been 
described as being “ a true almond in its affinities,” 1 and the desert apricot 
agree with the section Armeniaca, the apricots, in three important points: 
First, the leaves in the bud are rolled from the margin toward the middle, 
or convolute; second, the flowers are stalked, some on pedicels three- 
fourths of an inch long; and, third, the stones are smooth or but faintly 
pitted and decidedly wing-margined. 
These characters are found also in some of the true plums, but a distinct 
separation from the plums is met in the rose-colored flowers and in the 
only slightly fleshy, pubescent fruits. 
The presence of stomates in the upper surfaces of the leaves is a 
character distinguishing these two species from both the Amygdalus and 
Armeniaca sections. 
Their characters as a whole, however, seem to unite them most closely 
with the apricots, and apparently there is nothing among the European 
and Asiatic forms of Prunus to which they are as closely related. Con¬ 
sequently the two species are here placed in a new section, Penarmeniaca 
(near-apricots). 
The California desert almond (Prunus fasciculata) , the Texas wild 
almond (P. minutiflora), and the Mexican wild almond (P. microphylla ), 
agree in three important characters which separate them clearly from 
the three other species of this group. All three are dioecious by the abor¬ 
tion of either stamens or pistils; the number of the stamens is usually 
reduced to io or 15 and a portion of them inserted on the walls of the 
calyx cup. They further agree in having the inner face of the cup finely 
hairy instead of having a nectariferous surface as in apricots, peaches, and 
almonds. Havard's wild almond probably belongs in this same group. 
Prunus fasciculata has leaves with stomates in the upper surface, in 
which it resembles P. andersonii and P. eriogyna , while the other three 
species have no stomates in the upper surface. However, on the strength 
of the characters possessed in common, especially of the remarkable one 
of the dioecious character of the flowers, Prunus fasciculata is placed with 
Greene, E. E. Flora Franciscana. [Pt. i], San Francisco, {1891] p. 49. 
