NUTS. 277 



Aaron's dry and sapless stick was made to blossom and 

 bear. The Romans do not appear to have been very in- 

 timate with the fruit, Cato only mentioning them as 

 " Greek nuts," and some believe that even this supposed 

 allusion refers rather to Walnuts. The tree is indigenous 

 to Barbary, where it grows so abundantly that its delicate 

 fruit is not even reserved exclusively for the human palate, 

 the Moors, it is said, being accustomed to drive their goats 

 under the trees as they gather it, when the animals care- 

 fully nibble off the skins as it falls, and then greedily 

 feed. In that, its native land, it furnishes the first fruits 

 of the year, the blossoms appearing in January and the 

 produce being matured by April. Its generic name, Amyg- 

 dalus, is derived from a Hebrew word signifying vigilance, 

 because its early blossoms announce the coming of spring, 

 preceding even its own leaves, a fact which the fanciful 

 Greeks invented a myth to account for. "Phillis," said 

 they, " the beautiful Queen of Thrace, had not long been 

 the bride of Demophoon, son of Theseus, who had been 

 cast upon her shores when returning from the siege of 

 Troy, and whom she had kindly received and at last mar- 

 ried, when the newly- wedded husband, hearing of the death 

 of his father at Athens, left her to proceed thither, pro- 

 mising, however, to return in a month. Happening to be 

 detained beyond this time, his disconsolate wife wandered 

 daily by the sea to watch for his return, braving even the 

 coldest blasts of winter, until at length grief and expo- 

 sure so wrought upon her that she one day fell dead upon 

 the shore, when the pitying gods, admiring her constancy, 

 saved her from corruption by changing her into an almond- 

 tree. Not long after, Demophoon at last arrived, and, 

 overcome with grief on hearing the mournful fate of his 

 lately blooming bride, rushed wildly to the lifeless-look- 

 ing tree and clasped it in his arms. The soul of his Phil- 

 lis, changed as was her form, responded to him still, and, 

 quickened by his warm embrace, the tree burst forth into 

 a joyous flush of blossoms, though even the time of leaf- 

 ing had not yet arrived." Surely it would be little less 

 than impious to suppose that a bloom thus born of love 

 could possibly have ripened into deadly poison; yet so 



