114 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



as an ornamental shrub in gardens, as the Flowering Almond. There 

 are two marked varieties of the Almond : the one with sweet bland 

 seeds, Sweet Almond ; and the Bitter Almond, the kernel of which con- 

 tains a bitter volatile oil impregnated with prussic acid. This oil, which 

 is often used for flavoring pastry, &c., exists, or one very nearly like it, 

 in the peach kernel. Judging from observation, it would not seem to be 

 generally known to our Pastry Cooks, that a peach pie baked with the 

 fruit whole (i. e. simply pared, but the nut left in the peach), is vastly 

 superior to one made of the mere fleshy portion cut in pieces. The 

 process of baking, as I suppose, elicits the essential oil from the seed of 

 the peach and diffuses it through the pulp, imparting to it a sprightly 

 and delicious flavor, far beyond what it possesses when the stone is 

 previously rejected. 



2. ARMENIA' OA, Tournef. Apricot. 



[A name derived from Armenia, its native country.] 



Calyx campanulate, with 5 reflexed segments. Drupe roundish-oval, 

 fleshy, clothed with a soft velvety pubescence ; nut compressed, the sur- 

 face even and not roughly furrowed ; one margin obtuse, the other acute, 

 both grooved. Small trees. Leaves subcordate or ovate, convolute in the 

 bud. Flowers white, subsessile, solitary or few, preceding the leaves. 

 1. A. vulga'ris. Lam. Leaves orbicular-ovate, acuminate, dentate, sub- 

 cordate at base ; flowers sessile. 



Common Armeniaca. Common Apricot. Moor-park Apricot. 

 Fr. L'Abricotier. Germ. Der Aprikosenbaum. Span. Albaricoque. 



^ifem 10- 15 or 20 feet liigh, with rather stout spreading branches. Leaves 2-3 inches 

 long ; petioles an inch to an inch and a half long, mostly with cup-like glands near the base 

 of the leaf. Petals white. Drupe oval, yellowish when mature. 



Cultivated. Native of Armenia. Fl. April. Pr. July. 



Obs. This tree yields a luscious and favorite fruit ; and, in propitious 

 seasons, the branches are so loaded as to remind one of the admonitory 

 passage in Shakspeare : 



Go, bind thou up yon' dangling Apricocks, 

 Which, like unruly children, make their sire 

 Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight : 

 Give some supportance to the bending twigs." 



King Richard 11. 



The name of this fruit in Shakspeare's time was written '^Apricocks,'" 

 perhaps by a corruption of the latin A. prcecox, meaning Early Armeniaca. 

 It is melancholy to reflect how thoughtless and negligent mankind 

 generally are, with respect to providing fruit for themselves. There are 

 few persons who do not own or occupy sufficient ground to admit of 3 

 or 4 choice fruit-trees and a grape-vine ; such, for example, as an Apricot, 

 a Peach, a May-duke Cherry, a Catharine Pear, and a Catawba grape ; 

 yet the great majority seem never to think of planting such trees, while 



