——— 
7 
ALMOND. 
to the height of four or five; and it produces 
handsome red blossoms in March and April. The 
single-flowering variety of it is eminently beau- 
tiful; but the double-flowering variety is quite 
exquisite. In both, the flowers are arranged 
over the whole length of the previous year’s 
shoots.—The woolly almond, Amygdalus incana, 
is a native of the Caucasus, grows two feet high, 
and blooms in March and April. —The silver- 
leaved almond, Amygdalus orientalis, is a native 
of the Levant, and was introduced to Great Bri- 
tain in 1756. It is much less hardy than any of 
the other species. It grows ten feet high, and 
blooms in March and April. Its leaves have on 
both sides a silver-coloured down, but do not 
appear till the flowers have fallen.—The double- 
dwarf almond, Amygdalus pumila, but called by 
some botanists Prunus sinensis, is a native of 
China, and was introduced in 1683. It grows 
four feet high, blooms in May and June, has a 
double as well as a single variety, and disputes 
with the common dwarf the praise of beauty. 
All the species of almond may be propagated 
by budding, in July or August, upon peach or 
plum stocks. The plants intended for stocks 
ought to be planted in the nursery, when of the 
| size of a straw; and, in the following summer or 
the next again, they will be ready to receive the 
bud. If the usual method of budding. be prac- 
tised, the risk of failure is exceedingly small; yet 
the double-blossomed peach ought always to be 
worked into stocks of the mussel plum. “The 
next spring, when the buds shoot,” says Miller, 
“ you may train them up either for standards, or 
suffer them to grow for half-standards, according 
to your own fancy; though the usual method is 
to bud them to the height the stems are intended 
to be, and the second year, after budding, they 
may be removed to the places where they are to 
remain. ‘The best season for transplanting these 
trees, if for dry ground, is in October, as soon as 
the leaves begin to decay; but for a wet soil, 
February is much preferable; and observe always 
to bud upon plum-stocks for wet ground, and 
almonds or peaches for dry.” The dwarf species 
may be propagated also by layers or by suckers. 
Almond oil is obtained from the several varie- 
ties of the common almond; and is the same in 
quality from them all, but exists in smallest pro- 
portion in the bitter variety. The sweet almond 
contains about 54 per cent. of this bland fixed 
oil, with about 24 per cent. of a soluble albumen 
termed emulsin or synoptase. The cake left after 
the expression of the oil forms what is called 
almond powder, which is a good cosmetic for 
keeping the skin of the hands soft. This oil is 
used for emollient purposes in medicine; and, in 
certain cases, is administered in large doses to 
arrest inflammation in the stomach. It is thin- 
ner, sweeter, and less liable to rancidity than 
olive oil; and hence is generally used in perfum- 
ery, and for all purposes in which a very fine oil 
is required. Jd/acassar oil is merely oil of almonds, 
ALOE. 
coloured red with alkanet root; and Russia oil is 
the same thing, perfumed with ottar of roses, and 
rendered of a milkish white colour by potash or 
ammonia. Almond oil is used also by draughts- 
men, for tracing drawings on common letter paper. 
The nostrums for eruptions and cutaneous dis- 
orders, sold under the names of I/ik of Roses, 
Kalydor, and Gowland’s Lotion, consist of emul- 
sion of almonds with oxymuriate of mercury, 
sugar of lead, or white oxide of bismuth; and, 
though they might be gently emollient if they 
consisted merely of the emulsion, they exert, in 
their other ingredients, such a stimulating and 
corrosive power as cannot fail to be injurious. 
Bitter almonds, in consequence of their contain- 
ing a comparatively large proportion of prussic 
acid, cannot be taken in more than a very small 
quantity without producing head-ache, vertigo, 
and more serious symptoms. The quantity of 
almonds imported into Great Britain in 1841 
was 11,089 cwts.; in 1842, 21,335 cwts.—Low- 
don’s Encyclopedia of Plants —Miller’s Gardener's 
Dictionary. — Marshall on Planting. — Loudon’s 
Gardener's Magazine.—Stevenson and Churchill’s 
Medical Botany.—Dunglison’s Materia Medica. 
ALNUS. See Anprr. 
ALOE. A very numerous genus of tender ever- 
green plants, presenting considerable resemblances 
to the types of several of the Jussieuan orders, 
and referred by some modern botanists to the 
Asphodel type, and by others to the Day-lly 
type. The total number of known species is 
nearly one hundred and twenty; and the num- 
ber introduced to Great Britain is about one 
hundred. Unsuccessful attempts have been made 
by several botanists to divide them into a con- | 
They are plants of | 
siderable number of genera. 
very singular appearance; and may, as to the 
oddity of their form, be placed in the same cate- 
gory with New Zealand flax, Adam’s needle, and | 
Some may be classed as | 
small trees, some as shrubs, and most as ever- | 
the American aloe. 
green herbs. Five or six are natives of respec- 
tively China, the East Indies, the Mauritius, 
Kastern Africa, and the Levant; but all the 
others are natives of the Cape of Good Hope. 
By far the majority are mere vegetable curiosities ; 
but several are planted as hedges in the West 
Indies and the Cape of Good Hope, the fibres of 
several are manufactured into cordage and coarse 
cloth, the pulp of one is used by the Hindoos as 
& principal ingredicnt in a cooling beverage, and 
the juice of five or six yields the well-known aloes 
of commerce and of medicine. 
The soccotrine species, Aloe soccotrina, which 
has the reputation of producing the best aloes, 
has, when old, a round stem, three or four feet 
high,—sword-shaped leaves, eighteen or twenty- 
four inches long, saw-edged, sharp, and rising in 
clusters from the top of the stem,—and flowers of 
a red colour tipped with green, and arranged in 
clusters along the upper part of lofty flower-stalks 
which soar vertically from among the leaves. 
133 
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