According to Haller (Hist. Plant.), bitter almonds are a poison to birds and quadrupeds.

Almond-oil (the expressed oil) is principally obtained from the almonds of Valentia and Barbary; the Syrian almonds, usually called Jordan almonds, being preferred for the table.

The Large Fruited Almond (var. macrocarpa) is one of the most beautiful varieties of the almond. The flowers are twice as large as those of the common sort, and remain longer in perfection: the fruit also is larger. There is a specimen in the garden of the Horticultural Society, which has been figured and described by Mr. Lindley in the Botanical Register; who remarks, that this almond is "increased by budding upon plums and other drupaceous plants." About four hundred and fifty tons of almonds are annually imported into Great Britain, paying a duty of £18,000.

THE APRICOT-Prunus Armeniaca.

The apricot belongs to a very numerous genus of fruit-bearing trees, and trees which are a good deal different in their characters. The genus Prunus comprises all the varieties of the cherry, the laurels properly so called, the plums, the sloe, and a number of others that are never cultivated for the sake of their fruit. Many of the genus are poisonous; and though the fruit of some of them is agreeable to the taste, and safe enough when taken in limited quantities, there is none of the family that can be indulged in to excess with impunity. Columella says that the Persians sent the peach to Egypt to poison the inhabitants; and a species of apricot is called by the people of Barbary, 'matza Franca,' or the killer of Christians. All these evil qualities are, however,

*Shaw.

destroyed by cultivation; for it is the privilege of man not only to distinguish between the good and evil properties of vegetables, but to eradicate the evil, in many cases, by his skill and industry.

The apricot is very widely diffused in Asia, and grows upon the slopes of the barren mountains westward of China. Many species of it are cultivated; and, as they ripen earlier than the peach and nectarine, they are in considerable estimation. Some varieties are exceedingly delicious; and the Persians, in their figurative language, call the apricot of Iran, "the seed of the sun."

It should seem that the apricot was known in Italy in the time of Dioscorides; and that it got its name precocia from ripening earlier than some other fruits. The modern Greek name Teρɩкuкка is very like the Arabic name berikach. The Romans set little value upon the apricot, as appears by an epigram of Martial. If the ancient name is to be retained, a-precoke, as it used to be styled by our most early writers on horticulture, is the classical appellation, and the modern apricot the vulgarism or corruption.

The apricot is said to derive its scientific name from its almost covering the slopes of the Caucasus, the Ararat, and the other mountains in and about Armenia, up almost to the margin of the snow. The general opinion that it is a native of Armenia has, however, been controverted by M. Regnier, a French naturalist, who contends, that as Armenia is a high mountainous country, the climate of which resembles that of middle Europe, it cannot possibly be the country of a tree which begins to flower so early, that its blossoms are often destroyed by the frost, notwithstanding every care of the cultivator. The apricot, too, although it has been cultivated in Europe for many ages, never sprang up from seeds

in any of our forests; neither has it been found wild, either in Armenia or any of the neighbouring provinces. M. Regnier is of opinion that it is a native of Africa, and that its limits appear to be a parallel between the Niger and the range of the Atlas mountains, from whence it has, by cultivation, been carried towards the north.

Apricots are very plentiful, and in great variety, in China; and the natives employ them variously in the arts. From the wild tree, the pulp of whose fruit is of little value, but which has a large kernel, they extract an oil; they preserve the fruit wet in all its flavour; and they make lozenges of the clarified juice, which afford a very agreeable beverage when dissolved in water. The apricot attains the size of a large tree in Japan. It also flourishes in such abundance upon the Oases, as to be dried and carried to Egypt as an article of commerce. In those sultry climates, the flavour is exquisite, though the fruit is small.

Gough, in his British Topography, states that the apricot-tree was first brought to England, in 1524, by Woolf, the gardener to Henry VIII. had two varieties in his garden.

THE PLUM-Prunus domestica.

Gerard

The plum appears to be still more widely diffused in its original locality than the apricot; and it is much more prone to run into varieties. It is a native of Asia, and of many parts of Europe; and even grows wild in the hedges in some parts of Britain, though possibly it may have found its way there from some of the cultivated sorts, and have degenerated. The plum, and almost all its species, is very apt to run under ground, and produce suckers from the roots.. Duhamel says that if plums are

grafted low, and covered with earth, they push out shoots which may be transplanted.

Plums of various sorts appear to have been introduced into England as early as the fifteenth century. These varieties came to us from France and Italy. The "Green-gage" is the Reine Claude of France, so called from having been introduced into that country by the wife of Francis I. It is called Gage in Eng land, after the name of the family who first cultivated it here. The "Orleans" probably came to us when we held possession of that part of France from which it takes its name. Lord Cromwell introduced several plums from Italy, in the time of Henry VII. The damson, or damascene, as its name imports, is from Damascus.

In some countries, particularly in Alsatia, a considerable quantity of alcohol is produced from plums and cherries by fermentation. Dried plums form a large article of commerce, under the name of prunes and French plums.

There are nearly three hundred varieties of plums, many of which are, perhaps, only dissimilar in name. The Washington, a modern variety, which is stated

in the Pomological Magazine not to be surpassed in richness of flavour, beauty, and other good qualities, by any, is curious in its origin. The parent tree was purchased in the market of New York, some time in the end of last century. It remained barren several years, till, during a violent thunder-storm, the whole trunk was struck to the earth and destroyed. The root afterwards threw out a number of vigorous shoots, all of which were allowed to remain, and finally produced fruit. It is, therefore, to be presumed that the stock of the barren kind was the parent of this.

Trees were sent to. Mr. Robert Barclay, of Bury Hill, in 1819; and in 1821 several others were sent to the Horticultural Society by Dr. Hosack.

THE CHERRY-Prunus Cerasus.

The Cherry is a native of most temperate coun tries of the northern hemisphere. The small black is found not only in some parts of England, but even in places among the Scottish mountains, where it would be difficult to imagine them to have been carried. It is generally said that the first of the present cultivated sorts was introduced about the time of Henry VIII., and were originally planted at Sittingbourn, in Kent. The cherry-orchards of Kent are still celebrated. It seems, however, that they were known much earlier, or, at any rate, that cherries were hawked about London before the middle of the sixteenth century, in the very same manner as at present. The commencement of the season was `announced by one carrying a bough or twig loaded with the fruit. Our present popular song of " Cherry ripe, ripe I cry," is very slightly altered from Herrick, a poet of the time of Charles I. One of our old English games, cherry-pit, consisted of pitching