COMMON APPLE. 



3 



be sufficiently hard, and then put up in white paper 

 bags, and kept in a dry airy place for use. The 

 almond is always seen in the dessert, is useful in 

 medicine, and extensively employed by the cook and 

 confectioner. 



The bitter almond is supposed to be a variety of the 

 above, or of some other sort. It flourishes in any 

 kind of light soil ; disliking heavy loams or clays, 

 where, though it may grow vigorously for a few 

 years, it ultimately cankers off. Both this and the 

 sweet almond are successfully raised by being budded 

 on the muscle plum stock, which, being a durable, 

 healthy stock, forms very fine headed trees in a very 

 few years, 



SECT. II. 



OF THE C03I3ION APPLE. 



Tfiis well-known fruit tree is the pyrus inalus of bota- 

 nists, and certainly the most useful of all others cul- 

 tivated in Britain. Its characteristics of hardiness, 

 beauty, wholesomeness of its fruit, whether as agree- 

 able food, or for its juice as refreshing drink, the 

 earliness of some varieties, and the long-keeping 

 properties of others, render the apple one of the 

 choicest gifts of nature. 



It is probable that we are indebted to the French 

 and other nations on the continent for the first in- 

 troduction of apples into England. The wild crab 

 of our woods and hedges, is the only fruit of the 

 kind of which this country can boast as being indi- 

 genous. From this, however, nil mir jriprnrpd vfi- 



