5 NOVEMBER 1948, Page 17

In the Garden A query reaches me about. almonds. Are

the nuts of our ornamental almonds edible or identical with bought 'almonds? I have long thought the common-almond almost the loveliest and most usefUl of the prunus tribe. Its name is P. Amygdalus. A variety-of it, with much whiter and less lovely flowers, has the adjective Amara added. It bears a bitter, not a sweet, almond. Both bitter and sweet almonds are edible, though there is prussic acid in their composition.- Howevei, many of the imported almonds are of yet another variety, sometimes called Jordan, and we import five or six times as many sweet almonds as bitter. As a flowering shrttb, perhaps, the most attractive almond is Triloba. W. Bata' THOMAS. W. Bata' THOMAS.