sweet-scented, and produced in terminal panicles. The fruit is kidney-shaped, and borne on a fleshy receptacle, and when ripe of reddish or yellow color. The nut proper is enclosed in a leathery covering, consisting of two layers, between which is deposited a thick, caustic, oily substance, exceedingly acrid; but this is eliminated. by heat, so that when the kernels are roasted they have a pleasant flavor and are highly esteemed for dessert. Some care is required in roasting these nuts, as the fumes given off during this operation cause inflammation of the eyes. The nuts also yield an excellent oil, very similar to the best olive oil. Although originally found only in the West Indies, this nut is now widely distributed throughout the tropical countries of the East; in fact, naturalized in all hot climates, and is also under trial in southern Florida. CAUCASIAN WALNUT. WINGED WALNUT.-The winged fruit of Pterocarya fraxinifolia,, also known as P. Caucasica of nurserymen's catalogues. It belongs to the walnut family (Juglandacea), and is a tree growing thirty to forty feet high, somewhat resembling the common ash (Fraxinus). It is a pretty, hardy, ornamental tree, thriving only in moist soils. Seeds on winged nuts produced in long, drooping racemes, but of no special value. Introduced into England from Caucasus in 1800, and now plentiful here in nurseries. CHESTNUT.-See Chapter V; also Horse-chestnut, and Moreton Bay, Tahiti and Water chestnuts. CHOCOLATE NUT OR BEAN. -The seeds of a small tropical tree, Theobroma Cacao, of the chocolate nut family (Sterculiacea). Indigenous to tropical America, but now cultivated more or less extensively in all hot climates. The tree grows from fifteen to twenty feet high, with long, pointed, smooth leaves. The flowers are small, yellow, and produced from the old wood of both stems and branches, succeeded by a pod-like fruit six to ten or more inches long, containing fifty to a hun.. dred seeds, resembling beans more than they do nuts. When the fruit is ripe it is gathered, at which time the seeds are covered with a gum-like substance, and to remove this they are subjected to a slight fermentation, after which they are dried in the sun, this giving them their usual brown color. Chocolate nut trees are extensively cultivated in Brazil, New Grenada, Trinidad, and, in fact, throughout tropical America, and their cultiva tion is, upon the whole, very profitable, as the demand is almost unlimited. CLEARING NUT.-This is an East India name for the seeds of Strychnos potatorum, a plant belonging to the well-known nux vomica family (Loganiacea). It is a small tree, native of India, the wood of which is used for various purposes. The fruit is about the size of a cherry, and contains one seed; this is dried, and used for clearing muddy water, this being effected by rubbing one of the little nuts around the sides of the vessel that is to be filled, after which the water is poured in, and then, through some unknown agency, all the foreign matter settles, leaving the liquid perfectly pure, clear and wholesome. COCOANUT.-One of the most widely-known and largest of edible nuts; the product of Cocos nucifera, a lofty, tree-like palm (Palma or Palmacea). It is a native of tropical Africa, India, Malay, and of nearly all the islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. It only thrives near the seacoast or where the sea breezes reach it, requiring no special care after the nuts and young plants once become established in a congenial soil. The coco palm grows from fifty to one hundred feet high, with pinnate leaves from ten to twenty feet long. The nuts are produced in clusters of a dozen or more, and when full grown are somewhat triangular and a foot long, the outer coat or husk composed of a tough fiber. The nuts, when cleaned of their husks, are too well known to call for a further description here. In countries where these nuts are plentiful, their contents form nearly the entire food of the natives, the milky fluid serving for drink, and the more solid parts as a substitute for meat and bread. The cocoanut is prob ably utilized in more ways, and for a greater variety of purposes, than any other kind known, and it would require a volume to briefly enumerate them. Of recent years there have been plantations made of this nut on the coast of southern Florida, and one of the most extensive of these is by a man from New Jersey, but I have not heard from him of late, or seen any reports as to the results of his experiments. It is reported that there are about 250,000 cocoanut trees now growing in Florida. COCOANUT, DOUBLE.-This is the fruit of another lofty palm, Lodoicea Sechellarum, and is usually considered the largest member of the order. It is a native of the Seychelles islands, in the Indian ocean. It is said to reach a hight of a hundred feet, with a stem two feet in diameter. The fruit is a large, oblong nut, with a rather thin rind or husk, and when this is removed the nut appears to be double, or two oblong nuts firmly united, a kind of twin formation, the entire nut weighing from thirty to forty pounds. These immense nuts are produced in bunches of eight to ten, the cluster sometimes weighing from three to four hundred pounds. It is supposed that these nuts require about ten years to grow and mature. They are useless as food, but the shells are manufactured into various useful articles by the natives, and they are also transported to other countries and valued as curiosities. There is a great demand for the leaves of this palm for making hats, baskets, etc., and as the trees have to be cut down to obtain them, they are becoming rather scarce. COLA NUT, KOLA NUT OR GOORA NUT.-The fruit of a small tree, native of the warmer parts of western Africa, and known to botanists as Cola acuminata, and of the Sterculiad family (Sterculiacea). In its native country it grows thirty to forty feet high. The leaves are oblong-elliptical, six to eight inches long, and pointed (acuminate), and from this it probably derived its specific name. The flowers are yellow, and produced in axillary racemes, and succeeded by simple bean-like pods, each containing several nut-like seeds, which the natives call cola or goora nuts. These nuts have long been an article of trade among the native tribes of Africa, they being valued for their supposed efficacy in allaying thirst, promoting digestion, giving strength, and preventing exhaustion during the performance of hard manual labor. This tree was early introduced into the West Indies and Brazil, but its reputation in Africa does not appear to have been sustained it its Western habitat. COQUILLA NUT.—The fruit of the Piassaba palm, Attalea funifera, a native of Brazil, where it grows about thirty feet high. The fruit is produced in bunches, and are each about three inches long, covered with a thin rind. The nut is very hard, and is used as a substitute for bone and ivory in the manufacture of articles for the household. COQUITO NUT.-This is the fruit of the wing-leaved palm of Chile, Jubaa spectabilis. It is a moderately tall species, and closely resembles, in general habit, the date palm. The nuts are edible, but they are of secondary importance, this palm being valued mainly for the sweet sap issuing from the stem when cut down, this continuing to exude from it for weeks after it is severed from the roots. The sap is gathered and boiled, and when reduced to the consistency of molasses becomes an article of commerce, under the name of Meil de Palma or palm honey. CREAM NUT.-A local name of Brazil nut. EARTH NUT, OR EARTH CHESTNUT, ETC.-A small, low-growing, herbaceous plant of the carrot family (Umbellifera), common in waste or uncultivated grounds in Great Britain and other countries of northern Europe. Formerly botanists supposed there were two species, but of late only one, the Bunium bulbocastanum. On the roots there are small, nut-like tubers, of a sweetish taste, and they are eaten by children, either in the raw state or after being roasted. These tubers have various local names, and in addition to the above, they are called kipper nuts, and pig nuts in England, but a familiar local name in Scotland is lousy nuts, because it is said that eating them is sure to breed lice. But this story may have been invented by parents to deter their children from digging and eating the roots of wild plants. Willdenow, in naming this species, certainly recognized its edible qualities, and that children were fond of it, else he would not have called it an earth chestnut,bulbo, bulb, and castanum from castanea, the chestnut. ELK NUT.-See Oil nut. FISTICKE NUT.—See Pistacia nut. FOX NUT.-The seeds of a floating, annual aquatic plant, the Euryale ferox, native of India, and belonging to the water lily family (Nymphæacea). It is a handsome plant, with leaves about two feet in diameter, of a rich purple on the underside, with thorn-like spines on the veins. Flowers deep violet-red. The seeds of this species are eaten by the natives, the same as the aborigines of this country gathered the seeds of our indigenous Nelumbium luteum, under the name of water chinquapin, using them for food in the late fall and winter. GINKGO NUT.-The large, round, white, somewhat flattened, nut-like seeds of the now common maidenhair tree, or Ginkgo biloba, also known as Salisburia adianti |