changed her lover into this plant, or the Anemone, would 

 be difficult to decide, since the Linnsean system of dividing 

 plants into families, did not exist when the Gods and God- 

 desses made love upon earth: and previous to the time of the 

 Swedish botanist, the Jldonis was considered to be one of the 

 Mnemonics, which it greatly resembles, and is of the same 

 class and order. 



Flos (L) a flower, a bloom, a blossom. 



Look, in the garden, blooms the Flos Jldonis, 

 And memory keeps of him who rashly died, 

 Thereafter changed by Venus, weeping, to this flower. 

 Anonymous. Garland of Flora. 



Ovid certainly designates the Jlnemone, as being the 

 subject of this metamorphosis: 



" Then on the blood, sweet nectar she bestows, 

 The scented blood in little bubbles rose: 

 Little as rainy drops, which fluttering fly, 

 Borne by the winds along a low'ring sky. 

 Short time ensu'd, till where the blood was shed, 

 A flower began to rear its purple head: 

 Such as on punic apples is reveal'd, 

 Or in the filmy rind but half conceal'd. 



Still here the fate of lovely forms we see, 

 So sudden fades the sweet Jlnemone. 

 The feeble stems, to stormy blasts a prey, 

 Their sickly beauties droop and pine away. 

 The winds forbid the flow'rs to flourish long, 

 Which owe to winds their names in Grecian song." 



Eusden's Ovid. 



Great quantities of the Jldonis Jlutumnalis are annu- 

 ally carried to the London market, and sold by the name 

 of Red .Morocco and Pheasant's Eye. And, in the time of 

 Gerard, (a surgeon, and famous herbalist in the reign of 

 Queen Elizabeth, chief gardener to William Cecil, Lord 

 Burleigh, who was himself a great lover of plants, and had 

 the best collection of any nobleman in the kingdom,) the 

 country people called it "Red Camomile" the London 

 women, " Rosearubie. n It is an annual, flowering from May 

 to October. Its characters are, that the calyx is a five- 

 leaved peria.nt.hium, and the leaflets are obtuse, concave, a 

 little coloured and deciduous; the corolla has from five to 

 fifteen, but most commonly eight, oblong, obtuse, shining, 

 petals. The stamina consist of very short filaments, and the 

 anthersc are oblong and inflex: the pistulum has numerous 

 germs collected in a head, no styles, and acute reflex stigmas: 

 no pericarpium; an oblong, spiked receptacle: seeds nume- 

 rous, irregular, angular. 



ALMOND. 



Jlmygdalus. 



Jlmygdalus, in gardening, applies to the Almond, Peach, 

 and Nectarine trees. 



Jlmygdala, Latin for an Almond tree. 



Amygdaline, English, resembling almonds. 



Almond, (English) JUmendra, (Spanish) Jlmande, 



(French) derived by Menage from amandala, a word in low 

 Latin see Johnson. 



The Almond is the earliest tree that puts forth its blos- 

 soms in Syria, and is hence regarded as the emblem and pro- 

 mise of a fruitful season : its snow-white blossoms appear on 

 the bare branches, unaccompanied by leaves. 



" Mark well the flowering almond in the wood ; 

 If odorous blooms the bearing branches load, 

 The glebe will answer to the sylvan reign, 

 Great heats will follow, and large crops of grain. 

 But, if a wood of leaves o'ershade the tree, 

 Such, and so barren will the harvest be; 

 In vain the hind shall vex the threshing floor, 

 For empty straw and chaff will be thy store." 



Dryden's Virgil. 



It is the emblem of Hope : 



"The Hope, in dreams of a happier hour 



That alights on misery's brow, 

 Springs out of the silvery almond Jlower, 



That blooms on a leafless bough." 



Moore. 



We presume that Aaron's rod was taken from the Al- 

 mond tree: 



" And behold, the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi, 

 was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, 

 and yielded almonds." (Numbers xvii. 8.) 



The common almond, Jl. Communis, has leaves re- 

 sembling those of the peach, but the lower serratures are 

 glandular; they proceed from buds both above and below 

 the flowers, and not, as in the peach, from the ends of the 

 shoots above, and not below the flowers. The form of the 

 flowers is not very different, but they usually come out in 

 pairs, and vary more in their colour, from the fine blush of 

 the apple -blossom, to a snowy whiteness. The chief obvious 

 distinction is in the fruit, which is flatter, with a coriaceous, 

 or leather-like covering, instead of the rich pulp of the 

 peach and nectarine, opening spontaneously when the kernel 

 is ripe. 



It is a native of Barbary much cultivated in Italy and 

 the south of France. It is common in China, and most of the 

 eastern countries. According to Miller, the Jl. Communis 

 is cultivated more for the beauty of its flowers than for its 

 fruit; of which there are two varieties, the sweet and the bit- 

 ter; which often arise from the fruit of the same tree: the 

 fruit is good while fresh, but will not keep long. 



It is the fruit of the A. Dulcis, or Jordan A., which is 

 preferred in commerce. This has a tender shell, and a large 

 sweet kernel. The leaves are broader, shorter, and grow 

 much closer than those of the common sort, and their edges 

 are crenate. The Jlowers are very small, and of a pale co- 

 lour, inclining to white. The trees have been often raised 

 from the nut, which is imported. 



The Jl. Pumila, double-flowering dwarf-almond, is a 

 shrub of two or three feet high, smooth branches, and dark 

 purple. Leaves veined-wrinkled, or lanceolated, and dou- 

 ble serrated. Flowers, generally two in a bud and sessile. 

 Calyx reddish; petals emarginate, red, longer than the 



