[Illustration:  PEACH-BLOSSOM.]

“These peach trees,” said Clara, “look like sticks with pink flowers all over ’em.”  “They are remarkably bare of leaves when in bloom,” was the reply:  “the leaves burst forth from their envelopes as the blossoms pass away; but how beautiful the blossoms are! from the deepest pink to that delicate tint which is called peach-color.  But do you know that we have left the apple and rose family now, and have come to the almond family?”

The children were very much surprised to hear this, and they looked at the peach trees with fresh interest.

“Yes,” continued Miss Harson, “the family consists of the almond tree, the peach tree, the apricot tree, the plum tree and the cherry tree; and one thing that distinguishes them from the other families is the gum which is found on their trunks.—­Look around, Malcolm, at the peach, plum and cherry trees, which are the only members of the family that we have at Elmridge, and you will find gum oozing from the bark, especially where there are knotholes.”

Malcolm not only found the gum, but succeeded in helping himself to some of it, which he shared with his sisters.  It had a rather sweet taste, and the children seemed to like it, having first obtained permission of their governess to eat it.

“That is another of the things that I thought ‘puffickly d’licious’ when I was a child,” said the young lady, laughing.  “But there is another peculiarity of this family of trees which is not so innocent, and that is that in the fruit-kernel, and also in the leaves, there is a deadly poison called prussic acid.”

“O—­h!” exclaimed the children, drawing back from the trees as though they expected to be poisoned on the spot.

“But, as we do not eat either the kernels or the leaves,” continued their governess, “we need not feel uneasy, for the fruit never yet poisoned any one.  Here are the cherry trees, so covered with blossoms that they look like masses of snow; and the smaller plum trees are also attired in white.  We will begin this evening with the almond tree, and see what we can find out about the family.”

“Do almond trees and peach trees look alike?” asked Clara, when they were fairly settled by the schoolroom fire; for the evenings were too cool yet for the piazza.

“Very much alike,” was the reply; “only the almond tree is larger and it has white instead of pink blossoms.  Then it is the fruit of the peach we eat, but of the almond we eat the kernel of the stem.  I will read you a little account of it: 

“’The common almond is a native of Barbary, but has long been cultivated in the South of Europe and the temperate parts of Asia.  The fruit is produced in very large quantities and exported in to northern countries; it is also pressed for oil and used for various domestic purposes.  There are numerous varieties of this species, but the two chief kinds are the bitter almond and the sweet almond.