_Sweet Almonds_; F. _Amandes douces_; G. _Süsse Mandeln_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Prunus Amygdalus_ Baillon[937] var. β. _dulcis_
(_Amygdalus communis_ L. var. β. _dulcis_ DC.)—The native country of
the almond cannot be ascertained with precision. A. de Candolle,[938]
after reviewing the statements of various authors concerning the
occurrence of the tree in an apparently wild state, arrives at the
conclusion that its original area possibly extended from Persia,
westward to Asia Minor and Syria, and even to Algeria. The tree
is found ascending to 4000 feet in the Antilebanon, to 3000 in
Mesopotamia, and even to 9000 feet in the Avroman range, not far from
Sulemānia, Southern Kurdistan.[939]
[936] Dymock, _Ph. Journ._ vii. (1876) 109.
[937] _Hist. des Plantes_ (_Monogr. des Rosacées_, 1869) i. 415.
[938] _Géographie Botanique_, ii. (1855) 888.
[939] Boissier, _Flora Orientalis_, ii. (1872) 641.
At an early period the tree was spread throughout the entire
Mediterranean region, and in favourable situations, far into the
continent of Europe. It was apparently introduced into Italy from
Greece, where according to Heldreich,[940] the bitter variety is truly
wild. The almond-tree matures its fruit in the south of England, but is
liable to destruction by frost in many parts of central Europe.
=History=—The earliest notice of the almond extant is that in the Book
of Genesis,[941] where we read that the patriarch Israel commanded
his sons to carry with them into Egypt a present consisting of the
productions of Palestine, one of which is named as _almonds_.
From the copious references to the almond in the writings of
Theophrastus, one cannot but conclude that in his day it was familiarly
known.
In Italy, M. Porcius Cato[942] mentions towards the middle of the
2nd century B.C. _Avellanæ Græcæ_ which we know from later authors
signified _almonds_. Columella, who wrote about A.D.. 60, calls them
_Nuces Græcæ_. Bitter almonds (“_Amygdali amari_”) are named about this
latter period by Scribonius Largus.
As to more northern Europe, almonds are mentioned together with other
groceries and spices as early as A.D. 716, in a charter granted
by Chilperic II., King of France, to the monastery of Corbie in
Normandy.[943] In 812 Charlemagne ordered the trees (_Amandalarii_)
to be introduced on the imperial farms. In the later middle ages,
the cultivation of the almond was carried on about Speier and in the
Rhenish Palatinate. We learn from Marino Sanudo[944] that in the
beginning of the 14th century, almonds had become an important item of
the Venetian trade to Alexandria. They were doubtless in large part
produced by the islands of the Greek Archipelago, then under Christian
rule. In Cyprus for instance, the Knights Templar levied tithes in 1411
of _almonds_, honey, and sesamé seed.[945]
The consumption of almonds in mediæval cookery was enormous. An
inventory made in 1372 of the effects of Jeanne d’Evreux, queen of
France, enumerates only 20 lb. of sugar, but 500 lb. of almonds.[946]
In the _Form of Cury_, a manuscript written by the master cooks of King
Richard II., A.D. 1390, are receipts for “_Creme of Almand_, _Grewel of
Almand_, _Cawdel of Almand Mylke_, _Jowt of Almand Mylke_,” &c.[947]
Almonds were sold in England by the “_hundred_” _i.e._ 108 lb.
Rogers[948] gives the average price between 1259 and 1350 as 2d., and
between 1351 and 1400 as 3⅛d. per lb.
[940] _Nutzpflanzen Griechenlands_, Athen, 1862. 67.
[941] Ch. xliii. v. 11; Num. xvii. 8.
[942] _De Re Rustica_, cap. viii.
[943] Pardessus, _Diplomata Chartæ_, etc., Paris, 1849. ii. 309.
[944] _Liber Secretorum Fidelium_, ed. Bongars, 1611. 24.
[945] De Mas Latrie, _Hist. de l’île de Chypre_, ii. (1852) 500.
[946] Leber, _Appréciation de la fortune privée au moyen-âge_, éd. 2,
Paris, 1847. 95.
[947] Published by Pegge, Lond. 1780.—Boorde in his _Dyetary of Helth_,
1542, mentions _Almon Mylke_ and _Almon Butter_, the latter “_a
commendable dysshe, specyallye in Lent_.”
[948] _Agriculture and Prices in England_, i. (1866) 641.
=Description=—The fruit of the almond tree is a drupe, with a velvety
sarcocarp which at maturity dries, splits, and drops out leaving bare
and still attached to the branch, an oblong, ovate pointed stone,
pitted with irregular holes. The seed, about an inch in length, is
ovate or oblong, more or less compressed, pointed at the upper, blunt
at the lower end, coated with a scurfy, cinnamon-brown skin or testa.
It is connected with the stone or putamen by a broad funicle, which
runs along its edge for more than a third of its length from the apex;
hence the raphe passes downwards to the rounded end of the seed, where
a scar marks the chalaza. From this, a dozen or more ramifying veins
run up the brown skin towards the pointed end. After an almond has been
macerated in warm water, the skin is easily removed, bringing with it
the closely attached translucent inner membrane or endopleura. As the
seed is without albumen, the whole mass within the testa consists of
embryo. This is formed of a pair of plano-convex cotyledons, within
which lie the flat leafy plumule and thick radicle, the latter slightly
projecting from the pointed or basal end of the seed.
Almonds have a bland, sweet, nutty flavour. When triturated with water,
they afford a pure white, milk-like emulsion of agreeable taste.
=Varieties=—The different sorts of almond vary in form and size, and
more particularly in the firmness of the shell. This in some varieties
is tender and easily broken in the hand, in others so hard as to
require a hammer to fracture it. The form and size of the kernel
likewise exhibit some variation. The most esteemed are those of Malaga,
known in trade as _Jordan Almonds_. They are usually imported without
the shell, and differ from all other sorts in their oblong form and
large size. The other kinds of sweet almonds known in the London market
are distinguished in the order of value as _Valencia_, _Sicily_, and
_Barbary_.[949]
=Microscopic Structure=—Three different parts are to be distinguished
in the brown coat of an almond. First, a layer of very large (as much
as ⅓ mm. in diameter) irregular cells, to which the scurfy surface is
due. If these brittle cells are boiled with caustic soda, they make
a brilliant object for microscopic examination in polarized light.
The two inner layers of the skin are made up of much smaller cells,
traversed by small fibro-vascular bundles. The brown coat assumes a
bluish hue on addition of perchloride of iron, owing to the presence of
tannic matter.
The cotyledons consist of thin-walled parenchyme, fibro-vascular
bundles being not decidedly developed. This tissue is loaded with
granular albuminous matter, some of which exhibits a crystalloid
aspect, as may be ascertained in polarized light. Starch is altogether
wanting in almonds.
=Chemical Composition=—The sweet almond contains fixed oil extractable
by boiling ether to the extent of 50 to 55 per cent. A produce of 50
per cent. by the hydraulic press is by no means uncommon.
The oil (_Oleum Amygdalæ_) is a thin, light yellow fluid, of sp. gr.
0·92, which does not solidify till cooled to between -10 and-20° C.
When fresh, it has a mild nutty taste, but soon becomes rancid by
exposure to the air; it is not, however, one of the drying oils. It
consists almost wholly of the glycerin compound of _Oleic Acid_,
C₁₈H₃₄O₂.
[949] To be consulted for further information: Bianca, _G. Manuale
della Cultivazione del Mandorlo in Sicilia_, Palermo, 1874 (444 pages).
Almonds easily yield to cold water a sugar tasting like honey, which
reduces alkaline cupric tartrate even in the cold, and is therefore in
part grape sugar. Pelouze however (1855) obtained from almonds 10 per
cent. of cane-sugar. The amount of gum appears to be very small; Fleury
(1865) found that the _total amount_ of sugar, dextrin and mucilage was
altogether only 6·29 per cent.
If almonds are kept for several days in alcohol, crystals of asparagine
(see article Rad. Althææ, p. 93) make their appearance, as shown by
Henschen (1872), and by Portes (1876).
The almond yields 3·7 per cent. of nitrogen, corresponding to about 24
per cent. of albuminoid matters. These have been elaborately examined
by Robiquet (1837-38), Ortloff (1846), Bull (1849), and Ritthausen
(1872).[950] The experiments tend to show that there exist in the
almond two different protein substances; Robiquet termed one of these
bodies _Synaptase_, while others applied to it the name _Emulsin_.[951]
Commaille (1866) named the second albuminous substance _Amandin_; it
is the _Almond-legumin_ of Gmelin’s _Chemistry_, the _Conglutin_ of
Ritthausen. Emulsin has not yet been freed from earthly phosphates
which, when it is precipitated by alcohol from any aqueous solution,
often amount to a third of its weight. Amandin may be precipitated
from its aqueous solution by acetic acid. According to Ritthausen,
these bodies are to be regarded as modifications of one and the same
substance, namely vegetable casein.
Blanched almonds comminuted yield, when slightly warmed with dilute
potash, a small quantity of hydrocyanic acid and of ammonia; the former
may be made manifest by means of Schönbein’s test pointed out at p. 250.
The ash of almonds, amounting to from 3 to nearly 5 per cent., consists
chiefly of phosphates of potassium, magnesium and calcium.
=Production and Commerce=—The quantity of almonds imported into the
United Kingdom in 1872 was 70,270 cwt., valued at £204,592. Of this
quantity, Morocco supplied 33,500 cwt., and Spam with the Canary
Islands 22,000 cwt., the remainder being made up by Italy, Portugal,
France, and other countries. The imports into the United Kingdom in
1876 were 77,169 cwt., valued at £244,078. Almonds are largely shipped
from the Persian Gulf: in the year 1872-73, there were imported thence
into Bombay, 15,878 cwt., besides 3,049 cwt. from other countries.[952]
=Uses=—Sweet almonds may be used for the extraction of almond oil, yet
they are but rarely so employed (at least in England) on account of the
inferior value of the residual cake. The only other use of the sweet
almond in medicine is for making the emulsion called _Mistura Amygdalæ_.