A mygdalus communis, 
THE COMMON ALMOND-TREE. 
Synonymes. 
Amygdalus communis, 
Amandier, 
Mandelbaum, 
Mandorlo, 
Almendro, 
Amendoeira, 
Mindalnoe derevo, 
Almond-tree, 
ILiNN-asus, Species Plantarum. 
De Candolle, Prodromus. 
Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum. 
France. 
Germany. 
Italy. 
Spain. 
Portugal. 
Russia. 
Britain and Anglo- America. 
Engravings. Du Hamel, Traite dea Arbres et Arbustes, iv., pi. 29; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, vi., pi. 105; ana tne 
figures below. 
Specific Characters. Fruit a drupe ; compressed and rather egg-shaped ; the nut 2-ovuled, 1 2-seeded. 
Style terminal. Calyx deciduous, of a bell-shape ; flowers solitary. Leaves feather-nerved, undivided, 
oblong-lanceolate, serrate, with the lower serratures, or the petioles glanded. Stipules not attached to 
the petiole. 
Description. 
The hope, in dreams of a happier hour, 
That alights on misery's brow, 
Springs forth like the silvery almond flower, 
That blooms on a leafless bough." 
Moore. 
Com- 
mon Almond, 
when grafted 
. H035H on the plum, 
in the central parts of Europe and 
North America, often attains a height 
of twenty or thirty feet, with a trunk 
eight or ten inches in diameter; and 
even in the neighbourhood of Paris, it 
is met with of an elevation of forty- 
feet, and in Spain, Italy, and the south 
of France, it grows still higher. It is 
neither a handsome-shaped tree, nor 
of long duration, its head being wide 
and spreading ; but from being open, 
the shoots are clothed with oblong-lanceolate leaves, and pale, rose-coloured blos- 
som-buds, to a great length, so that when the latter expand, the branches appear 
to be wholly covered with them. It is commonly one of the first among hardy 
trees to display its blossoms, which generally put forth in Barbary in January; 
at Smyrna, in February ; near London, in March ; in Germany and New York, 
the latter part of April ; and at Christiania, in Norway, not till the beginning of 
June. Its contemporary flowering trees, in Britain, are the sloe, the apricot, the 
Cerasus pseudo-cerasus, and the myrobalan plum (Primus domestica myroba- 
lana.) The blossoms of all these trees appear before the leaves ; and hence they 
produce the finest effect when planted among evergreens. It has been observed 
that, though vernal frosts often destroy the germs of the fruit, they do not injure 
the beauty of the flowers, but even increase their splendour. An avenue of 
