AMY 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



AMY 



91 



ouced by weakness, and want of nourishment, and distempers 

 in the trees themselves, than by the inclemency of the sea- 

 son, to which they may have been exposed only by being 

 planted in an improper situation. The best method, when 

 the fault is not in the tree itself, is to sprinkle the brunches 

 gently with water, which should always be done before noon, 

 in dry weather, and when little, dew falls, soon after the blos- 

 oming season, when the young-set fruit is tender. When it 

 is grown to the size of a small nut, il will require thining. 

 The quantity of fruit left on large full-grown trees, ought not 

 to exceed five dozen, and four dozen is sufficient for those of 

 a middling size. In hot and dry seasons, the earth round the 

 stem of each tree may be formed into a hollow basin, six feet 

 in diameter, and covered with mulch ; into which once a week 

 or fortnight, according to the heat of the season, eight or ten 

 gallons of water may be poured down round the root of the 

 tree. But the best method is, to sprinkle the same or a 

 larger quantity of water all over the tree like rain, by means 

 of an engine ; which will prevent the fruit from falling off. 

 The culture of the Nectarine is the same as that of the Peach, 

 only the buds of the former should be taken from bearing 

 trees, and not from young nursery trees, as is too often done. 

 For further information, As to the propagation and culture 

 of these trees, see the articles Inoculation and Nursery. 



2. Amygdalus Communis ; The Almond Tree. The lower 

 serratures of the leaves glandulous ; the flowers sessile, and 

 in couplets. This tree grows to the height of twenty feet, 

 with spreading branches; but it is scarcely worth considering 

 in England, for the sake of the fruit it produces-. It is com- 

 mon in the East Indies. China, and Burbary, where it is a na- 

 tive ; and it is a great object in some parts of Italy, and the 

 south of France, as in Prorence and Dauphiny, where there 

 are vast plantations of Almonds. An Almond-tree, covered 

 with its blossoms, is one of the most elegant objects in na- 

 ture. There are several species and varieties not satisfac- 

 torily ascertained. Sweet almonds used in food are difficult 

 of digestion, and afford very little nutriment, unless well 

 masticated. As medicines, they contribute, by their soft 

 unctuous quality, to blunt acrimonious humours in the first 

 passages, and thus sometimes give present relief in the heart- 

 burn. On expression, they yield nearly half their Weight in 

 oil, which is more agreeable than most of the common ex- 

 pressed oils, and is therefore employed medicinally for allay- 

 ing acrid juices, softening and relaxing the solids, in tickling 

 coughs, hoarseness, costiveness, nephritic pains, &c. When 

 pounded in water, it unites with the fluid, forming a milky 

 liquor, which is prescribed as a diluent in acute diseases ; 

 and for supplying, in some degree, th place of animal milk, 

 with which it has a great analogy : an ounce of almonds is 

 sufficient for a quart of water, to which gum-arabic is in most 

 cases an useful addition. The pure oil, mixed with a thick 

 mucilage of gum-arabic, forms a more permanent emulsion ; 

 one part of gum, with an equal quantity of water, being 

 enough for four parts of oil. Almonds are also useful medi- 

 cines for uniting substances with water which will not of 

 themselves mix with it. Camphor, and the purgative and 

 other resins, pounded with about six times their quantity of 

 almonds, dissolved in water into a milky liquor, and are thus 

 fit for being taken in a liquid form. Bitter almonds, and 1 

 emulsions made from them, have been recommended as aperi- 

 ents, resolvents, diuretics, and anthelmintics. These almonds, 

 taken freely in substance, occasion sickness and vomiting : to 

 dogs, and some other animals, they are poisonous. A simple 

 water, strongly impregnated by distillation with their volatile 

 parts, has been found also poisonous to brutes, and there are 

 instances of cordial spirits flavoured by them being poisonous 

 to man. It is remarkable that the kernels of other fruits, that 



have any bitterness or particular flavour, appear to be impreg- 

 nated with a substance of a similar nature to this poisonous 

 principle of bitter almonds. Almonds are distinguished into 

 sweet and bitter, but there is no perceptible difference in the 

 trees which produce them. Six or eight sweet almonds, peeled 

 and eaten, frequently cure the heartburn. Notwithstanding 

 the noxious qualities of the bitter kind, they are said to de- 

 stroy worms, and operate as diuretics. Sweet almonds 

 blanched, and beaten into an emulsion with barley-water, are 

 of great use in the stone, gravel, strangury, and other dis- 

 orders of the kidneys, bladder, and biliary ducts. The colft- 

 mon and dwarf Almonds are propagated by inoculating a burt 

 of these trees into a Plum, Almond, or Peach stock, in July. 

 The next spring, when the buds shoot, they may be trained 

 up either for standards or suffered to grow to half-standards ; 

 and the second year they may be removed to the places Where 

 they are to remain. 



3. Amygdalus Puffiila; Doubte-Jlotbered Dwarf Almond. 

 Leaves veined, wrinkled. Branches stnoOth, two or three 

 feet high ; flowers red. These shrubs make a very agree- 

 able variety among low flowering trees, in small wilderness 

 quarters. Native of Africa : flowering time, April. 



4. Amygdalus Nafta ; Common Dwarf Almond. Leaves 

 attenuated at the base. It blossoms in April, at Which time 

 all the young shoots are covered with flowers, which are of 

 a peach-blossom colour, and make a fine appearance when 

 intermixed with shrubs of the same growth. It is a native 

 of the northern parts of Asia, particularly abundant inCalmuc 

 Tartary, and very frequent on the banks of the Volga. 



5. Amygdalus Incana; Hoary Dwarf Almond. Leaves 

 lanceolate, serrate, wrinkled, subsessile, white-tomentose 

 beneath.-^It fs doubted whether this be anything more than 

 a variety of the preceding species. 



6. Asiygdatus Orientalis ; RUvery-lear'ed Almond. Leaves 

 lanceolate, quite entire, silvery, perennial; petiole shorter. 

 The tenves are silvery, and continue most of the year ; the 

 flowers are very small. It was found growing near Aleppo. 



7. Amygdalus Cochin-chinensis. Leaves oVate, quite 

 entire ; racemes small, subterminal This is a large tree ; 

 native of the Vast woods of Cochin-china. 



Amytis ; a genus of the class Octandria, order Monogynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix :' perianth one-leafed, four- 

 toothed, a'ctrfe, erect, small, permanent. Corolla .- of four, 

 oblong, Concave, spreading petals. Stamina: filamenta awl- 

 shaped, erect ; anthera oblong, efeet, the length of the 

 corolla. Pistil : germen superior, ovate ; style thickish, the 

 length of the stamina ; stigma four-cornered. Pericarp : a 

 drupaceous, roundish berry. Seed.- a round shining nut. 

 ESSEN-TIAL CHARACTER. Call*- fOUf-toothed. Petals: four, 



oblong. Stigma .- four-cornered. forty : drupaceous. 



The species are, 



1. Amyris Elemifera ; Gitrrt Elemi Tree. Leaves ternate 

 and pinnate, with five lobes', dOwn;> underneath. This is des- 

 cribed as a lofty tree with a small trunk, covered with a 

 smooth grey bark. A resin, called gam-eleini', is from this 

 tree. It is a native of Carolina and Brazil. 



2. Amyris Sylvatica. Leaves ternate, crenate, acute. A leafy 

 branching shrub, from t\Vo to fifteen feet high. Found about 

 Carthagena, in woods near the sea. Flowering in August ; and' 

 abounding in turpentine of a strong disagreeable smell. 



3. Amyris Maritima ; Smalt Shrubby Sweetwood. Leaves 

 ternate, crenulate, obtuse'. A dwarf shrub, branching, with 

 a juice like that of the former species, but pleasanter, and 

 smelling like Rue.-"-It grows in Very barren coppices, in a 

 calcareous rocky soil, both near the sea and on the interior 

 mountains of Jamaica, Hfispaniola, and Cuba, flowering from 

 June to September. 



