THE ALMOND 



41. Iran was the centre from which the almond (Amygdalus com- 

 munis or Prunus amygdalus) spread, on the one hand to Europe, and on 

 the other to China, Tibet, and India. As to India, it is cultivated but 

 occasionally in Kashmir and the Panjab, where its fruits are mediocre. 

 It was doubtless imported there from Iran. The almond yields a gum 

 which is still exported from Persia to Bombay, and thence re-exported 

 to Europe. 1 The almond grows spontaneously in Afghanistan and 

 farther to the north-east in the upper Zarafshan valley, and in the 

 Chotkal mountains at an altitude of 1 000-1300 m, also in Aderbeidjan, 

 Kurdistan, and Mesopotamia. According to Schlimmer, 2 Amygdalus 

 coparia is very general on the high mountains, and its timber yields 

 the best charcoal. 3 



The Greeks derived the almond from Asia Minor, and from Greece 

 it was apparently introduced into Italy. 4 In the northern part of Media, 

 the people subsisted upon the produce of trees, making cakes of apples, 

 sliced and dried, and bread of roasted almonds. 5 A certain quantity of 

 dried sweet almonds was to be furnished daily for the table of the 

 Persian kings. 6 The fruit is mentioned in Pahlavi literature (above, 



P- 193)- 



The Yin yai hn Ian mentions almonds among the fruit grown in 

 Aden. 7 The Arabic name is lewze or lauz. Under this name the medicinal 

 properties of the fruit are discussed in the Persian pharmacopoeia of 

 Abu Mansur, who knew both the sweet almond (bdddm-i Hrln) and the 

 bitter one (bddam-i talx)* It is curious that bitter almonds were used 

 as currency in the empire of the Moguls. They were brought into the 



1 G. Watt, Commercial Products of India, p. 905; and Dictionary, Vol. VI, 

 P- 343- Joret, Plantes dans l'antiquite\ Vol. II, p. 279. W. Roxburgh (Flora 

 Indica, p. 403) concluded that the almond is a native of Persia and Arabia, whereas 

 it does not succeed in India, requiring much nursing to keep it alive. 



2 Terminologie, p. 33. 



3 A really wild almond is said to be very common in Palestine and Syria (A. 

 Aaronsohn, Agric. and Bot. Explorations in Palestine, p. 14). 



4 Hehn, Kulturpflanzen, pp. 393, 402; Fluckiger and Hanbury, Pharma- 

 cographia, pp. 244, 245. 



6 Strabo, XI. xiii, 11. 



6 Polyaenus, Strategica, iv, 32. 



7 Rockhill, T'oung Pao, 1915, p. 609. 



8 Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 128. 



405 



