The Almond. 91 



dalus. Wiclif (1388), in Genesis xliii. u, has almmindis, 

 and in Eccles. xii. v., almaunder. The current English 

 spelling, almond, appears first in the 1 6 1 1 version of the 

 Old Testament. 



The cultivation of the tree in England may be said to 

 be purely for the simple purpose insisted upon by Bacon, 

 "the royal ordering of gardens" so that there may be 

 beauty in them at all seasons. The blossom comes 

 immediately after that of the mezereon and the golden 

 Forsythia, captivating, in its far-visible roseate, the most 

 incurious all three plants delicious in their bringing to 

 mind those sweet little souls who, like Mary Wortley 

 Montagu, pet and plaything of a whole circle of wits 

 and scholars, come into bloom, smiling and sparkling, 

 while barely twelve years old. The stature attained, when 

 full grown, is about twenty feet, but flowers come in 

 profusion while the tree is not yet more than a third of 

 that height. Fruit, and even then not worth gathering 

 for table, is ripened only in exceptionally fine, hot 

 summers, preceded by mild and uninterrupted springs. 

 A singular merit of the tree, as regards decorative value, 

 is that, like the lilac and laburnum, it consents to live in 

 the suburbs of cities. For the highest decorative pur- 

 poses, the variety called macrocarpa should, if possible, 

 be procured, the flowers being twice as large as those of 

 the accustomed one, often pure white, and remaining 

 longer in perfection. The fruit of this, as expressed in 

 the name, is also larger. In either form of the plant it 

 provides a very curious object for examination, the 



