99 PRUNUS AMYGDALUS 



bland, sweetish, agreeable, nutty taste, and when triturated with 

 water they afford a pure white, milk-like emulsion of an agreeable 

 taste, but without any marked odour. They are covered with a 

 scurfy cinnamon-brown skin or testa ; this is easily removed by 

 maceration in warm water, together with the thin, closely attached 

 endopleura or inner membrane, and the kernels, which are 

 entirely formed of the embryo as already described, then alone 

 remain. These are termed blanched almonds. 



There are four varieties of sweet almonds now distinguished in 

 the London market, namely, Jordan, Valencia, Sicily, and Barbary, 

 which are arranged in the order of their value. The different 

 kinds vary in the form and size of their kernels and in the 

 firmness of their shells. When imported in the shell (endocarp) 

 they are known as almonds in the shell. 



Jordan Almonds are the finest kind ; they are imported from 

 Malaga, and generally without the shell. They differ from all the 

 other varieties by their more oval shape and greater length ; hence 

 they are sometimes termed long almonds. Jordan almonds are alone 

 official in the British Pharmacopoeia, as is indicated by the charac- 

 ters there given and the statement that they come from Malaga. 



The other varieties of sweet almonds are shorter and more 

 ovate, resembling in these respects bitter almonds ; indeed, 

 it is principally on this account, and in order to guard against 

 any admixture or substitution of bitter for sweet almonds, that 

 Jordan almonds, which from their greater length cannot well 

 be mistaken, are directed to be used in the British Pharma- 

 copoeia in the preparations of sweet almonds, which are ordered 

 in that volume. 



The principal constituents of sweet almonds are fixed oil (see 

 Oleum Amygdala), sugar, and two albuminous substances called 

 synaptase or emulsin, and amandin, which the recent experiments 

 of Bitthausen tend to indicate, are both modifications of casein. 

 It would seem also that sweet almonds must contain a very minute 

 proportion of some substance analogous to amygdalin (see Amyg- 

 dalae Amarae), as when warmed with solution of potash they yield 

 a small quantity of hydrocyanic acid. 



