CHAP. VII.] THE FILBERT, ETC. 199 



that the main branches may produce young 

 wood throughout the whole of their length. 

 In the filbert orchards about Maidstone, the 

 trees are trained with short stems like goose- 

 berry bushes, and are formed into the shape 

 of a punch-bowl, exceedingly thin of wood." 

 When the trees are pruned, care is taken to 

 eradicate all the suckers. Filberts are always 

 kept in their husks; and, if they lose 

 their colour and appear black or mouldy, their 

 appearance is renovated by the dealers, by 

 putting them into iron trays pierced with holes, 

 and gently shaking them over a chafing-dish 

 full of charcoal, on which a little powdered 

 sulphur has been thrown while the charcoal 

 was red-hot. 



The Constantinople Nut, or Colurna hazel, 

 is a large handsome tree ; and the American 

 hazels are shrubs grown occasionally in plan- 

 tations, but not cultivated in England for their 

 fruit. 



The Almond is in fact a peach tree, with a 

 fruit having a leathery pericarp instead of a 

 fleshy one ; and what are called almonds are 

 the kernels of the stones of this fruit. The 

 bitter and sweet almonds are varieties of the 

 same species ; and there are several other 

 varieties differing principally in the degree of 

 hardness of the stone. The other part of the 

 fruit is in all the varieties quite worthless, ex- 

 cept for the prussic acid it contains. The 

 prussic acid used in medicine is, however, made 

 principally from the kernel of the bitter almond, 

 though it does not exist in that of the sweet 

 variety. Almond trees are propagated by 



