334 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
February 2. 
seen that there is very little difference as regards the 
time at which each is ready for gathering. Still, how¬ 
ever, although the number enumerated is small, there 
is room for selection, and for the earliest crop we would 
recommend either Taylor's Prolific , or Songster's Number 
Continuing our notes on “ The Plants of the Bible,” we 
come next to The Almond. 
We are justified in concluding that the Almond is 
not a native of Palestine, because, when Jacob wished a 
suitable present to be presented to the Egyptian ruler, he 
desired that Almonds might form a part of the gift as being 
“ of the best fruits of the land” (Gen. xliii. 11). Now, such 
fruits are esteemed to be those which require some care 
in the culture. We should not consider Sloes and Crab 
Apples “ of the best fruits” of England. The Almond 
grows wild in Barbary, but its fruit is very inferior to 
that obtained from the cultivated trees in Palestine and 
other parts of the Levant. In commerce they still 
retain the name of the Jordan Almond, but they are no 
longer exported hither from the banks of that river, our 
supply being now chiefly derived from the south of 
Europe. 
The regard and attention paid by the Israelites to 
tliis tree and its fruit is strongly evidenced by the 
various allusions to it made in the Holy Scriptures. 
These allusions are nearly all, in some mode or other, 
founded upon the earliness of its blossoms. 
Theophrastus, who wrote about three hundred years 
before the birth of our Saviour, remarks that it was the 
only tree in Greece which produced its blossoms before 
its leaves. We all know that such is its habit in our 
own shrubberies, and that those blossoms are among 
the earliest that adorn the spring. It was on this 
account that God employed it as an emblem to denote 
how speedily his judgments should be executed upon 
Israel. “Jeremiah, what seest thou?” was God’s 
question to the entranced prophet; and when he re¬ 
plied, “I see a rod of an Almond Tree,” God rejoined, 
“ Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to 
perform it” ( Jerem . i. 11, 12). 
For a silnilar reason, probably, was Aaron’s rod, or 
official staff, formed of a branch of this tree. It was 
well calculated to remind its bearer of the promptitude 
and early devotion to his duties required of him by 
God. Nor was the lesson less impressive upon the 
people, for when they saw that the rod budded, blos¬ 
somed, and bore Almonds in rapid succession, it urged 
upon them that the good thoughts of the heart, if un¬ 
checked, give rapid birth to suitable k efforts and results 
(Numbers xvii. 8). 
As teaching these lessons—as a symbol that" the best 
fruits” of our lives and the first thoughts of our hearts 
should be towards God—Almonds were, perhaps, selected 
as a happy symbolical form for the bowls of the lamps, 
or candlesticks, of the Temple. Such offerings of our 
best and earliest would be a light to the Temple, and 
upon such offerings would the light of the Temple 
specially descend. 
One, and Beck’s Gem. Any of these, if sown in a 
warm situation early in January, will, if all goes well, 
produce an abundant crop in the second or third week 
in May. R. H. 
(To be continued.) 
Lastly, it is elegantly used by Solomon as a symbol 
of advancing old age, when he says “ the Almond Tree 
shall shed its flowers” (Ecclesiastes xii. 5).* Man was 
justly compared to an Almond Tree, because, as he 
becomes wise by experience, so this tree becomes more 
fruitful as it advances in years; a fact well known to the 
ancients, for Pliny says, “ The Almond and the Pear are 
in their old age most fruitful” (Nat. Hist. 1. xvi. c. 27). 
So also is extreme old age as beautifully compared to an 
Almond Tree casting off’ its flowers. With us the 
Almond has pink blossoms, but in the east the flowers 
are snowy white, and a fitting simile of those white 
locks the falling off of which has ever been named as a 
symptom of extreme length of years'. It is not only 
alluded to in our own sonneteers well-known words— 
“ Time hatli thinned my flowing locks, 
The few I’ve left are grey; ” 
but Anacreon wrote long before from the lands of the 
East— 
“ Oft am I by woman told, 
Poor Anacreon, thou grow’st old : 
Look how thy hairs are falling all! 
Poor Anacreon ! how they fall.” 
In the Malvern Prize-list for the present year, which 
announces the Exhibition of that Poultry Society for the 
13th and 14th of September next, we find the classes 
almost entirely confined to Chickens, Dorkings and 
Bantams being the only exceptions where the seniors 
are permitted to enter the lists. Considering the time 
of year at which the birds will have to make their 
appearance, the limitation to those hatched in the year 
is certainly a wise restriction, though we are at a loss to 
understand why Dorkings alone of the larger fowls 
should be exempt from this arrangement. With four 
separate classes for Shanghaes, could not the Committee 
have given one each to the Coloured and White Dor¬ 
kings? Hardly any two varieties of any breed are less 
suited for a common class, and we cannot but regret to 
see it in this instance. A new division, again, of Game 
Fowls is also proposed, for Duckwings and Black- 
breasted" are to go together, the rest in a common 
medley. We hold this to be a great mistake, for it 
would bo difficult to take any two varieties of the Game 
Fowls more distinct in feather than the black-breasted 
“ reds ” and the Duckwings. But tins word “ red ” is 
an insertion of our own, for we presume its omission to 
have been accidental in the list before us, since “ black 
breasted” is a term by which alone no variety of game 
or other fowls has yet been distinguished. But what 
becomos, may we ask, of the remaining “ reds,” the 
♦ The Scptuagint and our version of the Bible interpret , it, “The 
Alraond Tree shall flourish but Parkinson justly remarks that the 
Hebrew “never has anything like this meaning elsewhere in the Hebrew 
Bible.” 
