Greece, &c., for its fruit, which is preferred for some purposes in medicine and in domestic economy to that of the sweet almond, particularly for giving a flavour; and for stocks for grafting the other varieties on, and the peach, apricot, and even the plum. Bitter almonds are generally mixed with sweet ones, in very small proportions, for making blancmange, &c. Plutarch mentions that a great drinker of wine used to escape becoming intoxicated by the use of bitter almonds; which, perhaps, may be accounted for from the contra-stimulus of the prussic acid, which is known to abound more in bitter almonds than in sweet ones. TA. c. 2 dúlcis Dec. The sweet-kerneled common Almond Tree. Identification. Dec. Fl. Fr., 4. p. 486.; Prod., 2. p. 530.; Lam, Ill. t. 430. f. 2. Description, &c. Leaves grey-green. Flowers protruded earlier than the leaves. Styles much longer than the stamens. Fruit ovate-compressed, acuminate. Shell hard. Kernel sweet-flavoured. Cultivated in the same places as the preceding sort, and generally propagated by grafting standard high on the bitter almond, or any strong-grow ing seedling almonds, in order to make sure of the fruit being sweet. A. c. 3 flore plèno Baum. Cat. has double flowers. A. c. 4 foliis variegàtis Baum. Cat. has variegated leaves. f A. c. 5 frágilis Ser. The brittle-shelled common Almond Tree. Synonymes. A. frágilis Hell., 1. p. 500.; Amandier des Dames N. Du Ham., 4. p. 113., Provence. Engraving. Noisette Jard. Fruit., p. 7. t. 3. f. 2. Description, &c. Flowers protruded at the same time as the leaves, and of a pale rose colour. Petals broader, and deeply emarginate. Leaves shorter; the petioles thick. Fruit acuminate; shell soft; kernel sweet-flavoured. Cultivated for its fruits like the preceding sorts. A. c. 6 macrocarpa Ser. The long fruited common Almond Tree. Identification. Seringe in Dec. Prod, 2. p. 531. Synonymes. Amandier à gros Fruits N. Du Ham., 4. p. 112., Noisette Jard. Fruit., p. 7. ; Description, &c. Leaves broader, acuminate, scarcely grey. Peduncles short, turgid. Flowers of a very pale rose colour, large, protruded before the leaves. Petals broadly obcordate, waved. Fruit large, umbilicate at the base, acuminate at the tip; shell hard. There are two subvarieties, one with the fruit rather smaller, called, commonly, in France, amandier sultane; and another, with the fruit still smaller, called there amandier pistache; the kernels of both of which are considered remarkably delicate, and are preferred for the table. The flowers of this variety are always produced earlier than those of any other; and the kernels of the fruit are always sweet. In British gardens, the A. c. macrocarpa has much the largest flowers of any of the varieties; and, as none of them are cultivated in Britain for their fruit, this kind is by far the most desirable, on account of the magnitude and beauty of its flowers, which are white slightly tinged with pink. It is a vigorous large tree, of rapid growth, somewhat more fastigiate than the species; and it is propagated by grafting on the common species, or any free-growing variety of plum. There are fine specimens in the garden of the Horticultural Society, and in the Hammersmith Nursery. Price of dwarf plants, 1s. 6d. each; standard high, 2s. 6d. ↑ A. c. 7 persicöldes Ser. The Peach-like-leaved common Almond Tree. Identification. Seringe in Dec. Prod., 2. p. 531. Synonyme. Amandier-pecher N. Du Ham., 4. p. 114., Noisette Jard. Fruit., p. 7. Description, &c. Leaves similar to those of the peach tree. Fruit ovate, obtuse; its husk slightly succulent; the shell of a yellowish dark colour, and the kernel sweet-flavoured. Du Hamel has stated that its fruits vary upon the same branch, from ovate, obtuse, with the husk rather fleshy, to ovate, compressed, acuminate, and the husk dry. Cultivated in France and Italy for its fruit, but rarely found in British gardeus. The tuberes of Pliny, Knight considers as swollen almonds, and the same as this variety, having raised a similar one by dusting the stigma of the almond with the pollen of the peach, which produced a tolerably good fruit. (See Hort. Trans., iii. p. 4., and E. of Gard. edit. 1835, p. 920.) Other Varieties. The almond, considered as a fruit tree, has given rise to some other varieties, which will be found treated of at length in French works on gardening, in the Nouveau Du Hamel, and the Nouveau Cours d'Agriculture. General Description, History, &c. In British gardens, the common almond, grafted on the plum, standard high, forms a tree of 20 ft. or 30 ft. in height, with a spreading head, thin of branches; and it is commonly one of the first hardy trees which displays its blossoms. These generally expand, in Britain, in March, but in mild seasons even in February. At Smyrna, they appear in the beginning of February; in Germany, in the latter part of April; and at Christiania, in Norway, not till the beginning of June. (Dec. Phys. Vég., ii. p. 717.) The blossoms are of a pale rose colour; and it has been observed, that, though spring frosts often destroy the germs of the fruit, they do not injure the beauty of the flowers, but even increase their brilliancy. An avenue of almond trees, quite white with frost in the evening, will be of a brilliant rose colour the following morning, and will often retain its beauty for more than a month, the flowers never falling off till the tree is covered with verdure. Almond trees are, indeed, seldom good bearers: even in France, where the fruit is cultivated as an article of commerce, the tree is considered, on an average, only to bear a crop once in five years. From the head of the tree being open, the shoots are clothed with leaves and blossom buds to a great length; so that, when the latter expand, the branches seem wholly covered with them; a circumstance which is not found in trees having close dense heads, such as the common hawthorn. The almond, as a standard, is one of the principal ornaments of British shrubberies and plantations in spring; though it is neither a handsomely shaped tree, nor one of long duration. Contemporary blossoming trees are, the apricot, the sloe, the myrobalan plum, and the Cérasus Pseudo-Cérasus. The blossoms of all these trees come out before the leaves; and hence they produce the best effect when planted among evergreens. The chief distinction between the almond and the peach and nectarine is in the fruit; the former having the stone covered with a coriaceous dry hairy covering, while that of the latter is enveloped in a rich juicy glabrous one. The almond is mentioned by Pliny, and also the variety of it which he calls Tuberes; and which, as before observed (p. 675.), Mr. Knight considers to be the swollen, or peach, almond (A. c. persicoides Ser.), having raised a similar variety from fecundating the blossom of an almond with the pollen from a blossom of the peach, which produced tolerably good fruit. This, and other experiments, leave no doubt in our mind, that the almond and the peach are only one species. The almond tree is mentioned in Scripture as one of the choice fruits of Canaan; and by the earlier Roman writers, as well as by Pliny. Turner, and also Gerard, have treated of this tree; and the latter says that, though it is a tree of hot regions, yet we have them in our London gardens and orchards in great plenty, flowering betimes with the peach, and ripening their fruit in August. The tree, as we have already observed, is in very general cultivation in England, chiefly for its flowers; and in the middle and south of Europe, north of Africa, and part of Asia, for its fruit. Royle mentions that it has been introduced into India; but that it does not ripen its fruit in that country. Properties and Uses. The wood of the almond is hard, and of a reddish colour: it is used in cabinet-making, especially for veneering; and it is employed to make handles for carpenters' and joiners' tools. The leaves of this tree are said to form an excellent nourishment for sheep and goats, and to fatten the former in a very short time; but it must always be mixed with other provender. The gum which exudes from the tree is used for the same purposes as that of the cherry and the gum Arabic, though it is not so easily dissolved in water as the last-mentioned kind. An oil is obtained, both from bitter and sweet almonds, by maceration and expression; that is, by forming a paste of the kernels, putting it in a bag, and subjecting it to the action of a powerful press. A liquid is also distilled from both sweet and bitter almonds, which, from the quantity of prussic acid which it contains, is found to be poisonous to animals. An essential oil is obtained from the expressed oil, by distillation, which is one of the most virulent poisons known. Almond oil is supposed to blunt acrimonious humours, and to soften and relax the solids; hence its use internally, as a remedy for coughs, pains of the chest, and inflammations; and externally, in tensions and rigidity of particular parts. On triturating almonds with water, the oil and water unite together by the mediation of the albuminous matter of the kernel, and form a bland milky liquor, called an emulsion, which may be given freely in inflammatory disorders. The sweet almonds, alone, are employed in making emulsions, as the bitter almonds impart their peculiar taste. Several unctuous and resinous substances, that of themselves will not combine with water, may, by trituration with almonds, be easily mixed into the form of an emulsion; and are thus excellently fitted for medicinal purposes. It is a singular fact, that the seeds of the bitter and sweet almond should differ so essentially in their chemical compositions; the kernel of the bitter almond containing the deleterious principle of prussic acid, which does not exist in the kernel of the sweet almond, although found in its bark, leaves, and flowers. The existence of hydrocyanic, or prussic, acid, as a vegetable principle, was discovered in 1802, by Bohm, in the distilled water of bitter almonds. It was also discovered in the leaves of the common laurel, by Schrader, in the same year; in peach blossoms and leaves, by Vauquelin; in kirschewasser, by Von Ittner; and in the bark of the bird cherry, by Jahn. In all these, and many similar substances, the acid is modified by its combination with volatile oil. Hydrocyanic acid has recently been much used in pulmonary inflammation, asthmas, sympathetic coughs, &c. It is prepared by the Apothecaries' Company of London from cyanuret of mercury, hydrochloric acid, and water. Dr. Duncan, however, prefers the distilled water of bitter almonds, or laurel water, in these diseases, as being more manageable, and less liable to decomposition. Bitter almonds consist of 100 parts of fixed oil, 54 of albumen, 24 of liquid sugar, 6 of gum, 3 of fibre, 4 of pellicles, 5 of water, and 4 of acetic acid, out of 200 parts. (Stephenson's and Churchill's Med. Bot., and Don's Mill.) In domestic economy, sweet almonds, and also the common sort, are brought to the dessert in the husk, green, or imperfectly ripe; and also in a ripe state, with or without the husk; there is also a preserve made of green almonds. After they are ripe, they are frequently brought to table without the shell, and sometimes blanched; that is, deprived of the thick wrinkled skin which envelopes the kernel, by putting them for a few minutes in scalding-hot water. The kernels are much used in cookery, confectionery, and perfumery, on account of their agreeable flavour. The leaves are employed, in common with those of the peach and nectarine, for giving a flavour to gin, whisky, and other spirits. In nursery gardening in France, the almond is much used as a stock for grafting the peach and the apricot. Almond stocks, however, are far inferior to plum stocks in point of hardiness, durability, and facility of transplantation. Almonds form an extensive article of commerce. The Valencia almond is sweet, large, flat, pointed at one extremity, and compressed in the middle. The Italian almonds are not so sweet, smaller, and less depressed in the middle. The Jordan almonds come from Malaga, and are the best sweet almonds brought to England. The bitter almonds come chiefly from Mogador. (Thom. Disp.) The British revenue, from the tax on Jordan almonds, according to M'Culloch, was, in 1832, upwards of 5000.; the duty being 41. 15s. per cwt. The price of Jordan almonds, in London, in 1833, was from 75s. to 100s. per cwt.; Barbary bitter almonds, 31s. per cwt.; Valencia sweet almonds, from 72s. to 75s. per cwt. (M'Cull. Dict.) Historical, Poetical, and Mythological Allusions. The beauty of the almond tree, its flowering at a period when most other trees appear scarcely to have escaped from the icy chains of winter, and the extraordinary profusion of its flowers, have combined to render this tree, from the earliest ages, a favourite of the poets. The first mention of the almond is found in Holy Writ, when Moses, to ascertain from which of the twelve tribes to choose the high priest, put twelve rods into the tabernacle, and found, the following day, the almond rod, which represented the tribe of Levi, covered with leaves and blossoms. Virgil, in the Georgics, welcomes it, when flowering profusely, as the sign of a fruitful season. Spenser, in his Faerie Queene, compares the nodding plumes of Prince Arthur's helmet to an almond tree. "With blossoms brave bedecked daintilie ; Whose tender locks do tremble every one, At every little breath that under Heav'n is blown." Many modern poets have also noticed the almond tree; but, perhaps, the most beautiful of all the allusions to it is that by Moore: "The hope, in dreams of a happier hour, That alights on misery's brow, Springs forth like the silvery almond flower, The following is the origin assigned by Grecian mythology to this tree. Demophoon, son of Theseus, returning from Troy, was cast by a tempest on the coast of Thrace, where he was most hospitably received by the beautiful queen of the country, Phyllis. He won her heart, and became her husband; but scarcely were they united, when the death of his father recalled Demophoon to Athens; and he left Phyllis, promising to return to her in a month. When the given time had expired, the unfortunate queen wandered daily on the sea shore, looking in vain for her Demophoon; and when, at last, winter came, and still he returned not, after gazing for some time on the sea, in an agony of despair, she fell dead on the shore, and was changed by the pitying gods into an almond tree. Demophoon shortly after returned; and, being told what had occurred, flew to the tree, and clasped it in his arms, when the strong attachment of Phyllis, unable even then to restrain itself, caused the tree, though bare of leaves, to burst forth into blossoms. Soil, Situation, &c. Any free soil, that it is not too moist, will suit all the varieties of the common almond when grafted on plum stocks; but, when not grafted, or when the stock is the common or any strong-growing seedling almond, the plants will not be of long duration, unless the soil is dry, sandy, or calcareous, and of some depth. The situation should be sheltered, because the branches are liable to be broken off by high winds. Plants, in Britain, are seldom raised from nuts, but are almost always propagated by grafting or budding. In France, as we have already mentioned (p. 677.), the almond is much grown by nurserymen, as a stock for the peach and the apricot. The bitter variety used to be preferred for this purpose; but in the Vitry nurseries near Paris, where the peach is extensively propagated, a vigorous-growing variety of the sweet almond is chiefly used as a stock. The kernels are sown in rows, in the month of March; they are budded the following August, and in the October of the second year they make fine showy plants. (See Gard. Mag., vol. xii. p. 227.) The great advantage of these stocks to the nurserymen is, that, as they may be budded the very first year of their growth, on the spot where they are sown, a grafted tree may be obtained with them at the least possible expense. As the almond, however, sends down a taproot upwards of 2 ft. long the first season, it has been found that such a tree, when taken up for sale, has few fibres, and, consequently, little chance of growing. This has given rise to the practice of germinating the nuts in boxes of earth before sowing them, and pinching off the point of the radicle when about an inch in length; which causes it to throw out numerous horizontal roots: a very ingenious practice, which might be applied with advantage in many similar cases. This mode of germinating the nuts has another advantage; that of making sure of having plants the first season after planting, as, when it is not done, the seeds often lie in the ground two years. In planting the seed, care must be taken always to keep the sharp end of the seed downwards, otherwise the germination will be stayed, and also weakened. Plants will grow 4 ft. or 5 ft. high the first year. The tree bears chiefly on the young wood of the previous year, or on spurs of older wood. It requires but little pruning, except when it is wished to produce fruit of a large size, or to prolong the duration of the tree. Statistics. There are abundance of large specimens of the common almond in the neighbourhood of London; some at Syon, and at Purser's Cross, are upwards of 30 ft. high. In the Fulham Nursery, 10 years planted, there is a tree 15 ft. high. In Dorsetshire, at Melbury Park, 15 years planted, there is one 35 ft. high, with a trunk 9 in. in diameter, and a head 22 ft. in diameter. In Hertfordshire, at Cheshunt, 7 years planted, it is 20 ft. high. In Rutlandshire, at Belvoir Castle, 18 years planted, it is 25 ft. high. In Worcestershire, at Croome, 25 years planted, it is 25 ft. high. In Yorkshire, at Grimstone, 13 years planted, it is 20 ft. high In Scotland, at Edinburgh, in the Horticultural Society's Garden, 6 years planted, it is 11 ft. high. In Haddingtonshire, at Tyningham, 26 years planted, it is 24 ft. high. In Banffshire, at Gordon Castle, 16 years planted, it is 14 ft. high. In France, in the neighbourhood of Paris, it is frequently to be met with from 30 ft. to 40 ft. high; and in the south of Germany about the same height. In Italy and Spain it grows still higher.-A. c. amara in Suffolk, at Finborough Hall, 5 years planted, is 15 ft. high; at Great Livermere, 13 years planted, it is 21 ft. high. In Ireland, in Tipperary, at Clonmel, 15 years planted, it is 24 ft. high.-A. c. macrocarpa, in the London Horticultural Society's Garden, 6 years planted, is 20 ft. high; and in the Hammersmith Nursery, 4 years planted, it is 18 ft. high. Commercial Statistics. Standards of the common almond, in the London nurseries, are 1s. 6d. each; at Bollwyller, 1 franc; and at New York, 50 cents. A. c. macrocarpa, in the London nurseries, is from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. a plant. 3. 4. ORIENTALIS Ait. The Eastern Almond Tree. Identification. Ait. Hort. Kew., ed. 1., i. p. 162., ed. 2., iii. p. 195.; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 530.; Don's Synonymes. A. argentea Lam. Dict., 1. p. 108., N. Du Ham., 3. p. 115. Spec. Char., &c. Imperfectly evergreen. Branches and leaves clothed with a silvery tomentum; petiole of the leaf short, the disk lanceolate and entire. Flowers rose-coloured, and rather longer than those of A. nàna. Calyx cylindrically bell-shaped. Fruit tipped with a point. (Dec. Prod., ii. p. 530.) A tall shrub or low tree, growing to the height of 8 ft. or 10 ft.; and, according to Bosc, to the height of 15 ft. or 20 ft. It is a native of the Levant; introduced in 1756, and flowering in March and April. It is very striking, from the hoary, or rather silvery, appearance of its leaves; and it makes a handsome plant when budded standard high on the common almond or the plum. Specimens so budded may be seen in the Hammersmith Nursery. It flowers less freely than the preceding sort; but deserves a place in collections on account of its fine silvery foliage. App. i. Other Species of Amygdalus. We have little doubt in our own mind, that all the foregoing sorts, except the last, belong to A. nana and A. commúnis; and that the almond, the peach, and the nectarine are as much modifications of one species, as the different varieties of cabbages are of the wild plant, Brássica oleracea. We admit the convenience, however, of giving the sorts different names, and keeping them distinct; and we have accordingly done so. To the kinds we have already enumerated we may add some others, which, whether they are varieties or species, we are unable to determine; but we see nothing in the specific character to render it impossible that they may be only varieties; and, when we consider the different modifications which the tree undergoes, under the different circumstances of climate and culture to which it has been subjected, we incline, as usual, to the side of simplification. A. Tournefortii Bosc is said to be found in Asia Minor, Persia, and the adjoining countries. Rosier, and other French authors, consider it as the original type of the common species; but Bose, who cultivated it in Carolina, says he considers it as a distinct species, because the extremities of its shoots were not thorny, as those of the common almond are in a perfectly wild state; and because it only grows to 3 ft. or 4 ft. in height. (Bosc, in N. Cours complet d'Agriculture, art. Amandier.) A. cochinchinensis Lour. Fl. Cochin., p. 316. Native of Cochin-China, in woods. Corolla white. Kernel like the common almond in form and smell. Tree from 30 ft. to 40 ft. high. (Don's Mill., ii. p. 493.) A. microphylla H. B. et Kunth, Nov. Gen. Amer., 6. p. 245. t. 564. Native of Mexico, between Pachucha and Moran, on arid hills, at the height of 3900 ft. Flowers small, pink. Shrub, 3 ft. high. (Don's Mill., ii. p. 493.) GENUS II. PERSICA Tourn. THE PEACH TREE. Lin. Syst. Icosándria Monogynia. Identification. Tourn. Inst., t. 400.; Mill. Dict.; Dec. Fl. Fr., 487.; Don's Mill., 2. p. 483. Derivation. So named from the peach coming originally from Description, &c. The species are well-known fruit trees, in cultivation in gardens throughout the temperate regions of the world: in the middle and south of Europe, the fruit ripens in the open air; but in the north of Germany and Russia, and in Denmark and Sweden, only against a wall, or under glass. The species have the same medicinal properties as those of Amygdalus, but in a slighter degree. The peach and the nectarine are by some botanists made distinct species; but there can be no doubt of their being only varieties of one kind, 396 |