AMGYDALACE.E. I. AMYGDALUS. II. PERSICA. 



183 



and afford very little nourishment unless extremely well com- 

 minated. 



Selection of sorts. The tender shelled is in the greatest 

 esteem, and next the sweet and Jordan. 



Propagation. The almond is propagated like the peach, by 

 seed for varieties or stocks, and by budding on its own or on a 

 plum stock for continuing varieties. Plum stocks are pre- 

 ferred for strong moist soils, and peach and almond stocks for 

 dry situations. 



Final planting. The trees are generally planted as standards in 

 shrubberies, and these will sometimes in good seasons ripen their 

 fruit, but when fruit is the object they should be trained against a 

 west or east wall like the peach. 



Mode of bearing and pruning. The almond tree bears chiefly 

 on the young wood of the previous year like the apricot and 

 peach, and in part upon small spurs on the two year old and 

 three year old, and older branches ; it is therefore pruned like 

 these trees. 



Gathering and preserving the crop. A part may be gathered 

 when nearly ripe daily for some weeks before gathering the 

 whole crop. This operation generally falls to be performed in 

 September, when a part may be laid in the fruit room, and a 

 part thoroughly dried and bedded in sand in the fruit cellar for 

 keeping through the winter. 



Medicinal properties. Almond-oil is obtained both from bitter 

 and sweet almonds by expression. Bitter almonds have been 

 found poisonous to dogs and smaller animals ; and a distilled 

 water from them when made of a certain degree of strength has 

 had the same effects. The essential oil obtained by distillation 

 is one of the most virulent poisons known. Nevertheless bitter 

 almonds are every day used in cookery on account of their agree- 

 able flavour. Almond-oil is supposed to blunt acrimonious 

 humours, and to soften and relax the solids ; hence its use inter- 

 nally in tickling coughs, pains, and inflammations, and externally 

 in tensions and rigidity of particular parts. On triturating 

 almonds with water, the oil and water unite together by the 

 mediation of the albuminous matter of the kernel, and form a 

 bland milky liquor called an emulsion, which may be given freely 

 in inflammatory disorders. The sweet almonds alone are em- 

 ployed in making emulsions, as the bitter almonds impart their 

 peculiar taste. Several unctuous and resinous substances, of 

 themselves not mixable with water, may by trituration with 

 almonds be easily mixed into the form of an emulsion ; and are 

 thus excellently fitted for medicinal purposes. It is a singular 

 fact that the seeds of the bitter and sweet almonds should differ 

 so essentially in their chemical compositions ; the bitter almonds 

 containing a deleterious principle which does not exist in the 

 sweet almond, although found in its bark, leaves, and flowers. 

 The existence of hydrocyanic or prussic acid, as a vegetable 

 principle, was discovered in 1 802 by Bohm in the distilled water 

 of bitter almonds. It was also discovered in the leaves of the 

 cherry-laurel by Schrader in the same year ; in peach blossoms 

 and leaves by Vauquelin ; in cherry-water by Von Inner, and in 

 the bark of the bird-cherry by Jahn. In all these, and many similar 

 substances, the acid is modified by its ultimate combination with 

 volatile oil. Laurel-water is prepared, according to the Prussian 

 pharmacopoeia, by drawing off three pounds of distilled water 

 from two pounds of the fresh leaves. Thomassen Von Thues- 

 sink observed it to produce immediately cheerfulness," a lower 

 pulse, and quiet sleep. It has hitherto been chiefly recommended 

 in melancholy with an atrabilious constitution, and in obstruc- 

 tions of the liver, with a viscid state of the blood. Hydrocyanic 

 acid has recently been much used in pulmonary inflammation, 

 asthmas, sympathetic coughs, &c. It is prepared by the apothe- 

 caries' company in London from cyanuret of mercury, hydro- 

 chloric acid, and water. Dr. Duncan, however, prefers the dis- 



tilled water of bitter almonds or cherry-laurel water in these 

 diseases, as being more manageable and less liable to decompo- 

 sition. Bitter almonds consist of 100 parts of fixed oil, 54 albu- 

 men, 24* liquid sugar, 6 gum, 3 fibre, 4 pellicles, 5 water, and a 

 little acetate acid. 



Common, Sweet, and Bitter Almond. Fl. March, April. Clt. 

 1548. Tree 10 to 30 feet. 



6 A. COCHINCHINE'NSIS (Lour. fl. cochin, p. 316.) leaves oval, 

 quite entire ; racemes small, subterminal ; calyx campanulate; 

 fruit ovate, ventricose, acute at the apex. t; . G. Native of 

 Cochin-china, in woods. Corolla white. Kernel like the com- 

 mon almond in form and smell. 



Cochin-china Almond. Tree 30 to 40 feet. 



8 A. MICROPHY'LLA (H. B. et Kunth, nov. gen. amer. 6. p. 

 245. t. 564.) shrub much branched ; leaves oblong, acute, mu- 

 cronate, crenately serrated, glabrous, small ; stipulas twice the 

 length of the petioles ; calycine lobes obtuse, mucronate, re- 

 flexed ; stigma peltate ; fruit globose. Tj . S. Native of Mexico 

 between Pachucha and Moran on arid hills at the height of 3900 

 feet. Flowers small, pink. 



Small-leaved Almond. Shrub 3 feet. 



Cult. All the kinds of almond are very ornamental when in 

 flower ; the larger species are proper trees for the backs of large 

 shrubberies, or to stand singly, as they make a fine appearance 

 in spring, being in blossom before most other trees. The 

 dwarf kinds are well fitted for small shrubberies or the fronts of 

 large ones. All the species are increased by grafting on plum 

 stocks, or on the bitter almond, except some of the dwarfer kinds, 

 which may be easier increased by taking the suckers from the 

 plants at the roots. 



II. PE'RSICA (so named from the peach coming originally 

 from Persia). Tourn. inst. t. 400. Mill. diet. D. C. fl. fr. 4. 

 p. 487. Amygdalus species of Lin. and Juss. Trichocarpus, 

 Neck. elem. no. 718. 



LIN. SYST. Icosdndria, Monogtjnia. Drupe fleshy (f. 63. 6.), 

 with a glabrous or velvety epicarp, and having the putamen 

 wrinkled from irregular furrows (f. 63. c.). Trees. Leaves con- 

 duplicate when young. Flowers almost sessile, solitary or twin, 

 rising from the scaly buds earlier than the leaves. 



1 P. VULGA'RIS (Mill. diet. no. FIG. 63 



1. D. C. fl. fr. 4, p. 487.) fruit 

 clothed with velvety tomentum. 

 fj . H. Native of Persia. Amyg- 

 dalus Persica, Lin. spec. 677. Lam. 

 diet. 1. p. 99. no. 1-23. and 28-42. 

 Nois. jard. fruit, no. 1-1G and 22- 

 35. with figures. There is a very 

 elegant double flowered variety. 

 The peach tree in its natural state is 

 under the middle-size, with spread- 

 ing branches, lanceolate, glabrous, 

 serrated leaves. The flowers are 

 sessile, with reddish calyxes, and 

 pale or dark-red corollas-; the fruit 

 roundish, generally pointed, with a 

 longitudinal grove ; the pulp or 

 sarcocarp large, fleshy, and succu- 

 lent, white or yellowish, sometimes reddish, abounding in a 

 grateful sweet acid juice ; the stone hard, and irregularly fur- 

 rowed ; and the kernel bitter. The tree of quick growth, and 

 not of long duration, blossoms in April, and ripens its fruit in 

 August and September. Dr. Sickler considers Persia as the 

 original country of the peach, which in Media is deemed un- 

 wholesome, but when planted in Egypt becomes pulpy, delicious, 

 and salubrious. The peach also, according to Columella, when 

 3 ft 2 



