PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
5 
“Like to an Almond tree ymounted hye 
On top of greene Selinis all alone 
With blossoms brave bedecked daintily ; 
Whose tender locks do tremble every one 
At everie little breath that under Heaven is blowne.” 
F, Q. s i. 7, 32. 
The older English name seems to have been Almande—- 
“And Almandres gret plente ,”—Romaunt of the Rose ; 
“ Noyz de l’almande, nux Phyllidis ,”—Alexander Neckam; 
and both this old name and its more modern form of 
Almond came to us through the French amande (Provencal 
amondala ), from the Greek and Latin amygdalus . What this 
word meant is not very clear, but the native Hebrew name of 
the plant (shaked) is most expressive. The word signifies 
“awakening,” and so is a most fitting name for a tree whose 
beautiful flowers, appearing in Palestine in January, show the 
wakening up of Creation. The fruit also has always been a 
special favourite, and though it is strongly imbued with prussic 
acid, it is considered a wholesome fruit. By the old writers 
many wonderful virtues were attributed to the fruit, but I am 
afraid it was chiefly valued for its supposed virtue, that “ five or 
six being taken fasting do keepe a man from being drunke ” 
(Gerard). 1 This popular error is not yet-extinct. 
As an ornamental tree the Almond should be in every 
shrubbery, and, as in Gerard’s time, it may still be planted in 
town gardens with advantage. There are several varieties of 
the common Almond, differing slightly in the colour and size 
of the flowers; and there is one little shrub (Primus nano) 
of the family that is very pretty in the front row of a shrubbery. 
All the species are deciduous. 
1 “Plutarch mentions a great drinker of wine who, by the use of bitter 
almonds, used to escape being intoxicated,”— Flora Doniestlca, p. 6. 
