AMGYDALACE^. I. Amygdalus. II. Persica. 



483 



i - 





and afford very little nourishment unless extremely well com- tilled water of bitter almonds or cherry-laurel water in these 

 minated. diseases, as being more manageable and less liable to decompo- 



Sekction of sorts. The tender shelled is in the greatest sition. Bitter almonds consist of 100 parts of fixed oil, 54 albu- 



esteem, and next the sweet and Jordan. 



Propagation, The almond is propagated like the peach, by 

 seed for varieties or stocks, and by budding on its own or on a 



pimn stock for 



contmumg 



varieties. Plum stocks are pre- 1548. Tree 10 to 30 feet. 



men, 24* liquid sugar, 6 gum, 3 fibre, 4 pellicles, 5 water, and a 

 little acetate acid. 



Common, Sweet, and Bitter Almond. Fl. March, April. Clt. 



ferred for strong moist soils, and peach and almond stocks for 

 dry situations. 



Final planting . The trees are generally planted as standards in 

 shrubberies, and these will sometimes in good seasons ripen their 



6 A. Cochinchine'nsis (Lour. fl. cochin, p. 316.) leaves oval, 

 quite entire ; racemes small, subterminal ; calyx campanulate ; 

 fruit ovate, ventricose, acute at the apex. ^. G. Native of 

 Cochin-china, in woods. Corolla white. Kernel like the com- 



fruit, but when fruit is the object they should be trained against a mon almond in form and smell, 

 west or east wall like the peach. 

 Mode of bearing and pruning. 



The almond tree bears chiefly 



Cochin-china Almond. Tree 30 to 40 feet. 



8 A. microphy'lla (H. B. et Kunth, nov. gen. amer. 6. p. 



on the young wood of the previous year like the apricot and 245. t. 564.) shrub much branched ; leaves oblong, acute, mu- 

 peach, and in part upon small spurs on the two year old and cronate, crenately serrated, glabrous, small ; stipulas twice the 



length of the petioles ; calycine lobes obtuse, mucronate, re- 

 flexed ; stigma peltate ; fruit globose. Tj . S, Native of Mexico 



three year old, and older branches ; it is therefore pruned like 

 these trees. 



Gathering and preserving the crop. A part may be gathered 

 when nearly ripe daily for some wxeks before gathering the 

 whole crop. I'his operation generally falls to be performed in 

 September, when a part may be laid in the fruit room, and a 

 part thoroughly dried and bedded in sand in the fruit cellar for 

 Keeping through the winter. 



Medicinal properties. Almond-oil is obtained both from bitter 



between Pachucha and Moran on arid hills at the height of 3900 

 feet. Flowers small, pink. 



Small-leaved Almond. Shrub 3 feet. 



Cult. All the kinds of almond are very ornamental when in 

 flower ; the larger species are proper trees for the backs of large 

 shrubberies, or to stand singly, as they make a fine appearance 

 in spring, being in blossom before most other trees. The 



and sweet almonds by expression. 



found poisonous to dogs and smaller animals ; and a distilled 

 r^^^^^^^"^ them when made of a certain degree of strength has 

 had the same effects. The essential oil obtained by distillation 

 isone of the most virulent poisons known. Nevertheless bitter 



hT*^"fl ^^^ every day used in cookery on account of their agree- 

 able flavour. Almond-oil is supposed to blunt acrimonious 

 Humours, and to soften and relax the solids ; hence its use inter- 

 nally in tickling coughs, pains, and inflammations, and externally 

 "I 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 



laiid milky liquor called an emulsion, which may be given freely 



innaniniatory disorders. The sweet almonds alone are em- 



poyed in making emulsions, as the bitter almonds impart their 



{r " '^J" ^ste. Several unctuous and resinous substances, of 



emselves not mixable with water, may by trituration with 

 thu^" 1 ^^^^^^ i^ixed into the form of an emulsion ; and are 

 ferf^t^^^^TL^"''^ fitted for medicinal purposes. It is a singular 



ct that the seeds of the bitter and sweet almonds should differ , ^ 



con?^^^^^'^^ in their chemical compositions ; the bitter almonds diet. 1. p. 99. no. 1-23. and 28-42. 

 8ir^«#.^'^'r^ ^^deleterious principle which does not exist in the Nois. jard. fruit, no. 1-16 and 22- 



35. with figures. There is a very 

 elegant double flowered variety 



Bitter almonds have been dwarf kinds are well fitted for small shrubberies or the fronts of 



large ones. All the species are increased by grafting on plum 

 stocks, or on the bitter almond, except some of the dwarfer kinds, 

 which may be easier increased by taking the suckers from the 

 plants at the roots. 



II. PE^RSICA (so named from the peach coming originally 

 from Persia). Tourn. inst. t. 400. Mill. diet. D. C. fl. fr. 4. 

 p. 487. — Amygdalus species of Lin. and Juss. — Trichocarpus, 

 Neck. elem. no. 718. 



Lin. syst. Icosdndriay Monogynia. Drupe fleshy (f. 63. £.), 

 with a glabrous or velvety epicarp, and having the putamen 

 wrinkled from irregular furrows (f. 63. c). — Trees. Leaves con- 

 duplicate when young. Flowers almost sessile, solitary or twin, 

 rising from the scaly buds earlier than the leaves. 



1 P. vulga'ris (Mill. diet. no. FIG. Q$, 



1. D. C. fl. fr. 4, p. 487.) fruit 

 clothed with velvety tomentum. 

 ^ . H. Native of Persia. Amyg- 

 dalus Persica, Lin. spec. 677. Lam. 



^'J^eet almond, although found in its bark, lea 



and flowers. 



existence of hydrocyanic or prussic acid, as a vegetable 



P nciple, was discovered in 1 802 by Bohm in the distilled water The peach tree in its natural state is 



W bitter sArr.r.^A^ T. i i- -^ i . .i i ^ ^ ._.. 1-.„ .v . „ -J ll_ • .-.u J 



er almonds. It was also discovered in the leaves of the under the middle-size, with spread- 



andl^^ ^y Schrader in the same year; in peach blossoms 



the b^^l^^^r^^ Vauquelin ; in cherry- water by Von Ittner, and in 

 subst ^ ^^^ bird-cherry by Jahn. In all these, and many similar 

 ▼olafl^^^-i' ^^^^ ^^'^ ^^ modified by its ultimate combination with 

 DLa * Laurel-water is prepared, according to the Prussian 



from ^^^^^'^' by drawing off' three pounds of distilled water 

 sink h^ P^""ds of the fresh leaves. Thomassen Von Thues- 

 ^j^observed it to produce immediately cheerfulness, a lower 

 in j^\^^^/l^^^t sleep. It has hitherto been chiefly recommended 

 tions^ ^^choly with an atrabilious constitution, and in obstruc- 

 ^id h ^^^^^^ w^th a viscid state of the blood. Hydrocyanic 



•sth ^^ ^^cently been much used in pulmonary inflammation, 

 cariV^' ^y^^pathetic coughs, &c. It is prepared by the apothe- 

 <^Hlori ^°^P^"y '" London from cyanuret of mercury, hydro- 

 ^ acid, and water. Dr. Duncan, however, prefers the dis- 



ing branches, lanceolate, glabrous, 

 serrated leaves. The flowers are 

 sessile, with reddish calyxes, and 

 pale or dark-red corollas ; the fruit 

 roundish, generally pointed, with a 

 longitudinal grove ; the pulp or 

 sarcocarp large, fleshy, and succu- 

 lent, white or yellowish, sometimes reddish, abounding in a 

 grateful sweet acid juice ; the stone hard, and irregularly fur- 

 rowed; and the kernel bitter. The tree of quick growth, and 

 not of long duration, blossoms in April, and ripens its fruit in 

 August and September. Dr. Sickler considers Persia as the 

 original country of the peach, which in Media is deemed un- 

 wholesome, but when planted in Fgypt becomes pulpy, delicious, 

 and salubrious. The peach also, according to Columella, when 



3 q2 



