1880. 



A ND H OR TICUL TURIST. 



221 



neglected at home. The degree of A. M. was 

 conferred upon hiiu by both Dartmouth and 

 Middlebury Colleges. 



The Almond. — The Almond, like the Pome- 

 granate, is one of the very eai'liest trees men- 

 tioned in ancient literature. The history of the 

 tree is bound up with that of the original annals 

 of mankind; we have a reference to the produce 

 in the beautiful old narrative in Gene.sis xliii. 11, 

 the events related in which took place consider- 

 ably over 3000 years ngo. The native country of 

 this charming tree, though the region has been 

 pretty well ascertained, cannot be pointed out 

 quite as precisel}'^ as one would wish. De Can- 

 dolle thinks that the area may have extended 

 from Persia westward to Asia Minor and Syria. 

 Like many other trees of South-Western Asia, 

 it certainly became diffused along the shores of 

 the Mediterranean at a very early period. It was 

 well known in Greece in the time of Theophras- 

 tus, B c. 350, this author making copious men- 

 tion of it, and thence probably it would be that 

 the tree was conveyed to Italy. M. Porcius Cato, 

 150 B.C., and Columella, in the reign of Claudius, 

 refer to the nuts under the names of Avellana 

 grseca and Nux grseca, Cato remarking that the 

 taste is acrid, which would seem to imply that the 

 variety he was alone acquainted with was the 

 bitter one. At the present day the Almond 

 occurs in hedges everywhere in Greece, Anatolia, 

 Barbary, &c., not- to mention Palestine, Turkes- 

 tan, Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, and other locali- 

 ties probably primaeval. In Egypt it did not 

 grow in the very olden times, or at all events, it 

 was rare, as indicated by Jacob sending Almonds 

 as part of his present to Pharaoh's Prime Minister 

 — a proceeding which seems to indicate, collater- 

 ally, that it was a tree which in Canaan was 

 always prosperous, flourishing and bearing fruit 

 even in seasons when the cereals failed. In 

 England the Almond is believed to have been 

 cultivated since the days of the later Planta- 

 genets, the original plants coming from Barbary, 

 but nothing can be stated positively. Our climate 

 is ill-adapted to its success as an orchard tree. 

 Hence, although encouraged everywhere for the 

 sake of its lovely vernal bloom, our market sap- 

 ply of the produce is derived from warmer lati- 

 tudes. The so-called Jordan Almonds come, not 

 as the name would seem to indicate, from Pales- 

 tine, but from Malaga. — Gardener's Chronicle. 



Rosewood. — One of the American journals 

 says that "it has puzzled many people to decide 



why the dark wood so highly valued for furniture 

 should be called rosewood. It color certainly 

 does not look much like a rose, so we must look 

 for some other reason. Upon asking, we learn 

 that when the tree is first cut the fresh wood 

 possesses a very strong rose-like fragrance, hence 

 the name. There are half a dozen or more kinds 

 of rosewood trees. The varieties are found in 

 South America and in the East Indies and 

 neighbn'ing islands. Sometimes the trees grow 

 so large that planks 4 feet broad and 10 feet in 

 length can be cut from them. These broad 

 planks are principally used to make the tops to 

 piano-fortes. When growing in the forest the 

 rosewood tree is remarkable for its beauty ; but 

 such is its value in manufactures as an orna- 

 mental wood, that some of the forests where it 

 once grew abundantly now have scarcely a single 

 specimen. In Madras, the government has pru- 

 dently had great plantations of this tree set out 

 in order to keep up the supply." The rosewood 

 is Physocalymna floribunda, and it is entitled to 

 the specific name from the excessive number of 

 its red flowers, which, when fully expanded, ren- 

 der it a splendid object. — Journal of Horticulture. 



An Ancient Seed Shop. — The Standard of 

 Sept. 27, in its report of the recent excavations 

 at Pompeii thus speaks of the discoveries that 

 were made : " As it was impossible to be at all 

 the points of interest, ten new excavations being 

 carried on simultaneously, I went, being advised 

 by those most competent to judge, to section 

 No. 9, and there, in a small division parallel to 

 that already numbered five, the curiosity of the 

 spectators was soon richly rewarded. Almost 

 with the first strokes of pick and spade, used, by 

 the way, as only Pompeiian diggers know how, 

 there came to light a quantity of household ob- 

 jects, chiefly of those light and beautiful forms 

 and delicate workmanship to be found in even 

 the humble Pompeiian dwellings. A detailed 

 list of the various articles in the order in which 

 they Avere found fills six closely-written pages in 

 my note-book. They were bronze amphora 

 lamps, brooches, bracelets, delicate vases, and 

 one very large and elegant bronze candlestick, 

 earthen vessels of various forms, fragments of 

 glass, amongst which were the pieces of a lovely 

 little glass vase of the most brilliant blue color. 

 The belongings of the upper and under stories 

 of this little house were curiously mingled to- 

 gether, objects of mere ornament being mixed 

 up with kitchen utensils. Then came some large 



