Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/956

 There remain to be enumerated a number of nuts of commercial value for turnery and ornamental purposes, for medicinal use, and for several miscellaneous applications in the arts. These include:

The application of the term nut to many of these products is purely arbitrary, and it is obvious that numerous other bodies not known commercially as nuts might with equal propriety be included in the list. Most of the nuts of real commercial

importance are or will be separately noticed, and here further allusion is only made to a few which form current articles of commerce, not otherwise treated of.

The bread nut of Jamaica is the fruit of a lofty tree, Brosimum Alicastrum. It is about an inch in diameter, and encloses a single seed, which, roasted or boiled, is a pleasant and nutritious article of food.

The souari or surahwa nut, called also the “Butter nut of Demerara,” and by fruiterers the “Suwarrow nut,” is the fruit of Caryocar nuciferum, a native of the forests of Guiana, growing 80 ft. in height. This is perhaps the finest of all the fruits called nuts. The kernel is large, soft, and even sweeter than the almond, which it somewhat resembles in taste. The few that are imported come from Demerara, and are about the size of an egg, somewhat kidney-shaped, of a rich reddish-brown colour, and covered with large rounded tubercles.

The pekea nut, similar in appearance and properties, is the produce of Caryocar butyrosum, growing in the same regions of tropical America.

The Jamaica cob nut is the produce of a euphorbiaceous tree, Omphalea diandra, the seeds of which resemble in taste the ordinary cob or hazel nut. The seed however contains a deleterious embryo, which must not be eaten.

Cola, kola or goora nuts are the seeds of Cola acuminata (Sterculiaceae) a tree native of tropical Africa, now introduced into the West Indies and South America. The nuts form an important article of commerce throughout Central Africa, being used over a wide area as a kind of stimulant condiment. The nuts, of which there are numerous varieties are found to contain a notable proportion of theine, as much as 2·13%, besides theobromine and other important food-constituents, to which circumstances, doubtless, their valuable properties are due.

Coquilla nuts, the hard inner portion (“stone”) of the palm, Attalea funifera, the piassaba of Brazil, are highly valued for turnery purposes. They have an elongated oval form, 3 to 4 in. in length, and being intensely hard they take a fine polish, displaying a richly streaked. brown colour.