. ration, its head being wideand spreading; but from being open,the shoots are clothed with oblong-lanceolate leaves, and pale, rose-coloured blos-som-buds, to a great length, so that when the latter expand, the branches appearto be wholly covered with them. It is commonly one of the first among hardytrees to display its blossoms, which generally put forth in Barbary in January;at Smyrna, in February; near London, in March; in Germany and New York,the latter part of April; and at Christiania, in Norway, not till the beginning ofJune
. ration, its head being wideand spreading; but from being open,the shoots are clothed with oblong-lanceolate leaves, and pale, rose-coloured blos-som-buds, to a great length, so that when the latter expand, the branches appearto be wholly covered with them. It is commonly one of the first among hardytrees to display its blossoms, which generally put forth in Barbary in January;at Smyrna, in February; near London, in March; in Germany and New York,the latter part of April; and at Christiania, in Norway, not till the beginning ofJune. Its contemporary flowering trees, in Britain, are the sloe, the apricot, theCerasus pseudo-cerasus, and the myrobalan plum (Prunus domestica myroba-lana.) The blossoms of all these trees appear before the leaves; and hence theyproduce the finest effect when planted among evergreens. It has been observedthat, though vernal frosts often destroy the germs of the fruit, they do not injurethe beauty of the flowers, but even increase their splendour. An avenue of. COMMON ALMOND-TREE. 225 almond-trees, quite hoary with frost, in the evening, will be of a brilliant rose-coloar the following morning, and will often retain its beauty for more than amonth, the flowers never falling off till the trees are covered with verdure. Thefruit is not so attractive as that of tlie peach; because, instead of preserving thesame delicious pulp, its pericarp shrivels as it ripens, and becomes a horny kindof husk, which opens of its own accord, at the end of maturity. The kernel ofsome varieties of the almond is not defended by so thick a shell as that of thepeach and nectarine, for it is often so tender that the nuts break, when shakentogether. The chief distinction between these fruits is, that the almond has astone, covered with a coriaceous, dry, hairy covering, while that of the peachand nectarine is developed in a rich, juicy pulp, surrounded by a smooth ordowny skin. Varieties. In a wild state,
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbrownedj, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookyear1851
