ALMONDS. 199 



ALMONDS. 



Almond-trees (Amygdalits communis, fig. 376) are hardly grown in 

 this country otherwise than for ornament, on account _^ 



of the remarkable beauty of their flower, which is / 



i ' j ! I , I . I i , 



one of the earliest of all the spring blossoms. 



The French nurserymen's catalogues describe many 



FIG. 376 Al-r-on'l and 



varieties, and the flavour of the produce of all my 



trees varies, but I have no faith in the names which have been 



assigned to them. 



I have observed that it is essential to have the wood of the tree 

 well ripened for it to have much flower. Even with abundance of flower 

 we have seldom any great amount of fruit. 



In 1870 the almond-trees round London, including mine at Walling- 

 ton, were laden with fruit. We adopted the foreign plan of commen- 

 cing to use them for dessert as soon as the kernels were formed, and we 

 had abundance of fruit till winter. Our friends from France considered 

 them as a great delicacy. Why there was so great a crop in so bad 

 a spring season was a puzzle to me, but as I was in Italy in that spring 

 I could not unravel it. In Florence I bought in the market green 

 almonds as early as the middle of April, but where they came from I 

 could not learn, but, probably, either from Sicily or Africa, as fruit 

 of the Loquat was sold at the same time. When almond-trees do 

 fruit in England, the produce is generally neglected, but, from the 

 manner in which they were appreciated in 1870, the culture of this 

 fruit certainly deserves more attention, especially as the tree is most 

 ornamental in early spring, even if it produces no fruit. In our 

 village there is a fine almond-tree overhanging the road in the garden 

 of Mr. Mackenzie. 



ORANGES AND LEMONS. 



The varieties of Oranges (Citrus aurantiuni] are very numerous, but 

 they can hardly be said to be grown for fruit here, nor is it advisable, 

 when steamers bring oranges so rapidly from the South, \\here the trees 



