BITTER ALMONDS. POMEGRANATE. 141 
times nearly half their weight, of oil. Indeed this is 
so plentiful that it may even be squeezed out of the 
ternel with the fingers. Some preparations of almonds 
are used in medicine, particularly that called milk of 
almonds, which is formed of pounded almonds, loaf- 
sugar, and water, well mixed together. In some parts 
of the East Indies, it is said that almonds supply the 
>lace of small money. 
153. BITTER ALMONDS are in no respect different 
from sweet almonds, either as to the appearance of the kernels 
themselves, or the trees which produce them, except somewhat in 
the size of the flowers and fruit. 
Like sweet almonds, they yield a large portion of 
oil. This has no bitterness ; but the substance which 
remains after the pressure is intensely t>itter. If these 
almonds be eaten freely, they occasion sickness and 
vomiting ; and, to many quadrupeds and birds, they are 
a fatal poison. There was formerly a notion, but it is 
an erroneous one, that the eating of them would pre- 
vent the intoxicating effects of wine. They are fre- 
quently used, instead of apricot kernels, in ratafia, and 
sometimes are employed in making a counterfeit 
cherry-brandy. The oil and emulsions of bitter al- 
monds are used in medicine: and a powder and paste 
for washing the hands is made both from them and 
from sweet almonds. By confectioners they are much 
in request for flavouring biscuits and other articles. 
154. The POMEGRANATE is an apple-shaped fruit 
with thick rind, and crowned with the leaves or teeth of the 
calyx. It is the produce of an evergreen shrub (P'unica 
granatum, Fig. 47) which grows zvild in the southern parts of 
Europe. 
This shrub is usually from fifteen to twenty feet high. The 
branches are armed ivith spines; and the leaves are oblong, 
pointed, and dark green. The flowers, which are of a rich 
scarlet colour 9 have five rounded petals . 
By the Greeks and Romans almost every part of the 
pomegranate tree (the root, leaves, flowers, and fruit) 
