SWEET ALMONDS 



161 



SWEET ALMONDS 



(Amygdala Dulcis) 



Source, &C. The sweet almond is the seed of Prunus Amygdalus, 

 Stokes, var. dulcis, Baillon (N.O. Rosacece). The tree is a native 

 probably of Persia and Asia Minor, but is cultivated in all the countries 

 that border on the Mediterranean, and produces ripe fruit even in 

 the south of England. The seeds almonds as well as the oil 

 pressed from them, were well known in Greece and Italy long before 

 the Christian era ; during the Middle Ages they became an important 

 article of commerce in Central 

 Europe. 



The almond tree produces in 

 early spring handsome pink 

 flowers, which are succeeded by 

 green, velvety, drupaceous fruits 

 about the size of a plum, but 

 differing .from it in possessing a 

 firm, felt-like mesocarp. As the 

 fruit ripens the mesocarp gradu- 

 ally dries, splits, and falls away 

 (or is easily removed), carrying 

 the thin epicarp with it, and 

 leaving the seed, enclosed in the 



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FIG. 91. Almond : a, Sweet Almond ; 

 b, same, cut longitudinally, c, 

 Bitter Almond ; d, same, cut trans- 

 versely. Natural size. (Holmes.) 



endocarp or shell, attached to 



the tree. Sometimes almonds 



are exported enclosed in their 



endocarps (almonds in the shell), but more frequently the shells are 



broken and the seeds alone exported. 



Sicily and southern Italy are the chief almond-producing countries. 

 Spain, Portugal, the south of France, the Balearic Islands, and 

 Morocco also export considerable quantities. 



Description. The endocarp or shell of the almond is yellowish 

 buff in colour and flattened-ovoid in shape, the outer surface being 

 usually pitted with small holes ; frequently it has a more or less 

 fibrous nature. Sometimes it is thin and friable (soft-shell almonds), 

 sometimes extremely hard and woody (hard-shell almonds). The 

 seed is rounded at one end, pointed at the other, and covered with a 

 thin, brown, scurfy seed-coat. The hilum is long, and situated on 

 the acute edge of the seed near the pointed end ; the raphe is 

 distinguishable as a dark line running from the hilum to the broad 

 end of the seed, where it terminates in a dark spot, the chalaza, from 

 which a number of veins radiate. 



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