AUGUST. 
165 
although growing in a quarter alongside other kinds which bore an excellent 
crop. Sir Harry, Trollope’s Victoria, Oscar, and Empress Eugenie produced 
an excellent crop in the gardens at this place ; Oscar not to equal Trollope’s 
Victoria as regards crop, which is on the whole about as useful a Strawberry 
for general purposes as a gardener can grow. The Hautbois produced a 
wonderful crop, but to be successful with this kind the annual treatment recom¬ 
mended by the Rev. Mr. Radclyffe must be practised. Some old rows, three or four 
years old, produced literally nothing compared with those planted last autumn. 
I wonder this old Strawberry is not more extensively grown than it is—scarcely 
any one dislikes it. 
Wrotham Park , Barnet. John Edlington. 
THE ALMOND. 
It is from the Amygdalus communis of botanists that all the varieties of 
the cultivated Almond have originated. This tree belongs to the natural order 
Amygdalacece , which includes also the-Peach, to which it is so nearly allied that 
Linnaeus included both under one genus ; the stone of the Peach is surrounded 
with a thick, succulent, and richly flavoured flesh, Avhile that of the Almond is 
enclosed in a thin, rather dry, austere or bitter husk, and is not so much 
furrowed as in the Peach; but the essential characters of both are such as to 
warrant the belief that they are only different forms of the same species. This 
was to a certain extent proved by Mr. Knight, who, by impregnating an Almond 
with the farina of a Peach raised a hybrid, which produced a fleshy and well- 
flavoured fruit. 
The Almond forms a middle-sized tree, from 25 to 30 feet high. The 
branches are long, straight, inclining upwards, and more vigorous than those 
of the Peach. The shoots are not so red, but greener and finely dotted. The 
leaves are alternate, stipulate, and deciduous ; long, narrow, and lanceolate; 
larger, stiffer, smoother, more prominently ribbed and deeply dentated than 
those of the Peach; they are also more shining, and of a dark greyish green 
colour. The flowers are set on very short footstalks, and are expanded before 
the leaves ; they consist of five pink or rose-coloured petals, fixed on a bell¬ 
shaped calyx, which is divided round the margin into five segments ; and 
enclose from twenty to thirty stamens, in the centre of which is the germ, sur¬ 
mounted with a cylindrical-shaped style. The fruit consists of a compressed, 
oval-shaped, spongy husk, of a green colour, and covered with a thick down ; 
when ripe it opens longitudinally in two valves, on the side marked with a 
furrow, exposing a hard, woody, and irregularly-furrowed stone or shell, which 
contains the kernel or true Almond. 
In its natural state the Almond is found distributed throughout the north 
of Africa, Syria, and the mountainous parts of Asia. It is one of the oldest 
fruits of which we have any record, and is frequently mentioned in Scripture 
as one of the most common in the land of Canaan, where it was considered of 
such importance, that it formed part of the present, consisting of “ the best 
fruits in the land,”'* which Jacob commanded his sons to carry with them into 
Egypt. When the Princes of Israel disputed which of them should perforin 
the office of the priesthood, God commanded them to lay each their rods in the 
tabernacle of the congregation before the ark, which being done, on the 
morrow, “ Behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and 
brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded Almonds.”f It is also 
* Gen. xliii,, 11. + Num. xvii.j 3. 
