“ - 
————— 
132 
parts (we presume eighty per cent.) of finely di- 
vided matter, and one part of silicious matter ; 
and an analysis of the finely divided matter 
gave 360 parts of carbonate of lime, 25 parts 
of alumina, 20 parts of silica, 8 parts of oxide 
of iron, and 19 parts of vegetable, animal, and 
saline matter. A specimen of rich soil from 
the neighbourhood of the Avon, in the valley of 
Evesham, in Worcestershire, consisted of three- 
fifths of fine sand, and two-fifths of impalpable 
matter ; and an analysis of the latter gave 41 
parts of alumina, 42 parts of silica, 4 parts of 
carbonate of lime, 5 parts of oxide of iron, and 8 
parts of vegetable, animal, and saline matter. A 
specimen of excellent meadow soil, from the val- 
ley of the Avon, near Salisbury, afforded one- 
eleventh of coarse silicious sand; and its finely 
divided matter consisted of 7 parts of alumina, 
14 parts of silica, 63 parts of carbonate of lime, 
| 2 parts of oxide of iron, and 14 parts of vege- 
table, animal, and saline matter—Lyell’s Ele- 
ments of Geology.—Lyell’s Principles of Geology. 
—Buckland’s Geology—De La Beche’s Geology — 
Burnei’s Theory of the Karth—Sir H. Davy’s Agri- 
cultural Chemistry —Philip’s Geology.—Comstock’s 
Geology.— Malte Brun’s Geography. 
ALMOND,—botanically Amygdalus. A genus 
of fruit trees and ornamental shrubs, with rosa- 
ceous blossoms. It includes the peach, the nec- 
tarine, the sweet almond tree, the bitter almond 
tree, and four species of ornamental shrubs; and 
it was formerly regarded by all Jussieuan botan- 
ists, and is still regarded by some as a member 
of the Rosaceze family ; but it more properly con- 
stitutes the type of a distinct order, called Amyg- 
daleze, Amygdalineze, or Amygdalaceze, and em- 
| bracing the plum, the damson, the cherry, the 
| bird-cherry, the sand-cherry, the bastard-cherry, 
the choke-cherry, the common laurel, the Portu- 
gal laurel, the bullace tree, the apricot, and the 
numerous other species of the genus prunus. 
The fruit of all the plants of amygdalez is a 
drupe ; the leaves of all contain some portion of 
prussic acid ; and the bark of most or all yields 
a gum similar to gum arabic, and an astringent, 
febrifugal substance similar in medicinal virtue 
to Peruvian bark. The species of the genus 
Amygdalus are the peach, the sweet almond, the 
common dwarf, the woolly, the silver-leaved, and 
the double-dwarf. 
The peach, Amygdalus Persica—but now called 
by some botanists Persica vulgaris—is a native of 
Persia, and was introduced to Great Britain in 
1562. It has usually, since the time of Linnzeus, 
been divided into two varieties,—the peach, with 
downy fruit,—and the nectarine, Amygdalus Per- 
sica nectarina, with smooth fruit,—the latter 
now sometimes called Persica levis. Yet various 
instances have occurred of the two varieties of 
| fruit growing on the same tree, and even on the 
same branch; and one instance is on record of 
a single fruit being partly peach and partly nec- 
tarine. The French divide the fruits of the spe- 
ALMOND. 
cies into péches, free-stone peaches, whose fleshy 
matter easily separates from the stone and the 
skin ; péches lisses, free-stone nectarines, or free- 
stone smooth peaches ; pavies, cling-stone peaches, 
whose fleshy matter does not easily separate from 
the stone and the skin; and brugnons, necta- 
rines or cling-stone smooth peaches. See articles 
Praco and Necrarine, The double-flowering 
peach, Amygdalus Persica plena, is usually propa- 
gated for ornamental purposes, and is universally 
acknowledged to be one of the most handsome 
blossoming trees in either woodland or shrubbery, 
or against a wall, 
weeks later than the single peach ; and it attains 
a height of about fifteen feet. A double-flower- 
ing almond, almost certainly a peach, is noticed 
by a correspondent in a recent periodical as hay- 
ing produced flowers of the appearance of double 
roses. 
The sweet almond, Amygdalus communis, is a 
native of Barbary, and was introduced to Great 
Britain in 1548; but it has long been naturalized 
in almost every district of the south of Europe, 
and in many districts of the temperate part of 
Asia. It is grown in Italy, Spain, the south of 
France, and different parts of the Levant, for its 
fruit; but it is cultivated in England only as an 
ornamental tree. Its fruit is produced in great 
abundance on most of the seaboard districts of 
the Mediterranean ; and forms an extensive ar- 
ticle of commerce, both in itself, and in the well- 
known oil which it yields. The Jordan almonds, 
which are the best, come from Malaga in Spain. 
Though but one in species, it has sported itself 
into a considerable number of well-defined and 
permanent varieties. One of the most remark- 
able of these, the bitter almond, Amygdalus com- 
munis amara, is distinguishable from the sweet 
almond only by the taste of its fruit, and yet it 
possesses the dismal property of always contain- 
ing a very pernicious amount of prussic acid. 
Indeed it is doubtful whether these two kinds of 
almonds, the bitter and the sweet, are not fur- 
nished by the same variety of tree. It has been 
stated, apparently on good authority, that bitter 
almonds are not unfrequently gathered from the 
sweet almond tree. The bitter almonds are im- 
ported chiefly from Mogadore. Upwards of twelve 
ordinary varieties are cultivated in France; and 
It flowers in spring, three | 
also a hybrid kind between the common almond 
and the peach. Most of the varieties cultivated 
in Britain attain a height of about fifteen feet, 
carry a profusion of delicate red blossoms in 
March, and, both on their own account and from 
the contrast of the prevailing state of vegetation 
at the season, are eminently ornamental. The 
white-flowering variety is inferior in beauty to 
the others, and is liable to be stripped of its blos- 
soms by one night’s frost. 
The common dwarf almond, Amygdalus nana, 
is a native of Russia, and was introduced to 
Great Britain in 1683. It grows usually to the 
height of only about two feet, but occasionally 
