Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/957

 The marking nut, Semecarpus Anacardium, is a fruit closely allied in its source and properties to the (q.v.). The marking nut is a native of the East Indies, where the extremely acrid juice of the shell of the fruit in its unripe state is mixed with quicklime and used as a marking-ink. The juice also possesses medicinal virtues as an external application, and when dry it is the basis of a valuable caulking material and black varnish. The seeds are edible, and the source of a useful oil.

Physic nuts are the produce of the euphorbiaceous tree, Curcas purgans, whence a valuable oil, having similar purgative properties to castor oil, is obtained. The plant is a native of South America, but is now found throughout all tropical countries.

Pine nuts are the seeds of several species of Pinus, eaten in the countries of their growth, and also serving to some extent as sources of oil. Of these the most important are the stone pine, Pinus Pinea, of Italy and the Mediterranean coasts, and the Russian stone pine, Pinus Cembra. The Pinus Sabiniana of California and P. Gerardiana of the Himalayas similarly yield edible seeds. These seeds possess a pleasant, slightly resinous flavour.

Ravensara nuts, the fruit of Agathophyllum aromaticum (Lauraceae), a native of Madagascar, is used as a spice under the name of the Madagascar clove nutmeg.

The Sapucaya nut, a native of Brazil, is seen occasionally in fruit-shops. It is produced by a large tree, Lecythis Ollaria, or “cannon-ball tree.” Its specific name is taken from the large urn-shaped capsules, called “monkey-pots” by the inhabitants, which contain the nuts. The sapucaya nut has a sweet flavour, resembling the almond, and if better known would be highly appreciated. It is, however, scarce, as the monkeys and other wild animals are said to be particularly fond of it. This nut, which is of a rich amber-brown, is not unlike the Brazil nut, but it has a smooth shell furrowed with deep longitudinal wrinkles.

Soap nuts are the fruits of various species of Sapindus, especially S. Saponaria, natives of tropical regions. They are so called because their rind or outer covering contains a principle, saponine, which lathers in water, and so is useful in washing. The pods of Acacia concinna, a native of India, possess the same properties, and are also known as soap nuts.  NUTATION (from Lat. nutare, to nod), a revolution of the celestial pole around its mean position, due to inequalities in the action of the sun and moon, on an earth of ellipsoidal form. When either of these attracting bodies is in the plane of the equator, it produces no change in the direction of the celestial pole. The greater their distance from this plane, the greater the change, for reasons shown in the article. The result is a motion which can be divided into two components. One of these is the progressive and nearly uniform motion of a fictitious mean pole, called (q.v.), and the other a revolution of the true around the mean pole, depending on the varying declinations of the sun and moon, and called nutation. Owing to the revolution of the moon’s node and the inclination of its orbit, this body moves through a wider range of declination in some positions of the node than in others. The period of the revolution of the node is 18·6 years. At one time of this period the limits of its declination are more than 28° north and south, while, at the opposite point, they are little more than 18°. The result of these periodic changes is that the nutation takes place nearly in an ellipse, differing little from a circle, at a distance of about 9″, in a period of about 18·6 years. The motion is not exactly an ellipse, having a great number of minute inequalities arising from the ellipticity of the orbits of the sun and moon and their varying declinations. The amount and formulae of nutation from year to year are given in the Nautical Almanac.  NUTCRACKER, the name given by G. Edwards in 1758 (Gleanings, No. 240) to a bird which had hitherto borne no English appellation, though described in 1544 by Turner, who, meeting with it in the Rhaetic Alps, where it was called “Nousbrecher” (hodie “Nussbrecher”), translated that term into

Latin as Nucifraga. In 1555 C. Gesner figured it and conferred upon it another designation, Caryocatactes. It is the Corvus caryocatactes of Linnaeus and the Nucifraga caryocatactes of modern ornithology. F. Willughby and J. Ray obtained it on the road from Vienna to Venice as they crossed what must have been the Sömmerring Pass, 26th September 1663. The first known to have occurred in Britain was, according to T. Pennant, shot at Mostyn in Flintshire, 5th October 1753, and about fifteen more examples have since been procured, and others seen, in the island. Contrary to what was for many years believed, the nest of the Nutcracker seems to be invariably built on the bough of a tree, some 20 ft. from the ground, and is a comparatively large structure of sticks, lined with grass. The eggs are of a very pale bluish-green, sometimes nearly spotless, but usually more or less freckled with pale olive or ash-colour. The chief food of the Nutcracker appears to be the seeds of various conifers, which it extracts as it holds the cones in its foot, and it has been questioned whether the bird has the faculty of cracking nuts—properly so called—with its bill, though that can be used with much force and, at least in confinement, with no little ingenuity. The old supposition that the Nutcrackers had any affinity to the Woodpeckers (Picidae) or were intermediate in position between them and the Crows (Corvidae) is now known to be wholly erroneous, for they undoubtedly belong to the latter family (see also ).

 NUTHATCH, in older English, from its habit of hacking or chipping nuts, which it cleverly fixes, as though in a vice, in a chink or crevice of the bark of a tree, and then hammers them with the point of its bill till the shell is broken. This bird was long thought to be the Sitta europaea of Linnaeus; but that is now admitted to be the northern form, with the lower parts white, and its buff-breasted representative in central, southern and western Europe, including England, is known as Sitta caesia. It is not found in Ireland, and in Scotland its appearance is merely accidental. Without being very plentiful anywhere, it is generally distributed in suitable localities throughout its range—those localities being such as afford it a sufficient supply of food, consisting during the greater part of the year of insects, which it diligently seeks on the boles and larger limbs of old trees; but in autumn and winter it feeds on nuts, beech-mast, the stones of yew-berries and hard seeds. Being of a bold disposition, and the trees favouring its mode of life often growing near houses, it will become on slight encouragement familiar with men; and its neat attire of ash-grey and warm buff, together with its sprightly gestures, render it an attractive visitor. It generally makes its nest in a hollow branch, plastering up the opening with clay, leaving only a circular hole just large enough to afford entrance and exit; and the interior contains a bed of dry leaves or the filmy flakes of the inner bark of a fir or cedar, on which the eggs are laid. In the Levant occurs another species, S. syriaca, with somewhat different habits, as it haunts rocks rather than trees; and four or five representatives of the European arboreal species have their respective ranges from Asia Minor to the Himalayas and Northern China. North America possesses nearly as many; but, curiously enough, the geographical difference of coloration is just the reverse of what it is in Europe—the species with a deep rufous breast, S. canadensis, being that which has the most northern range, while the white-bellied S. carolinensis, with its western form, S. aculeata inhabits more southern latitudes. The Ethiopian Region has as representative of the group the Hypositta corallirostris of Madagascar. Callisitta and Dendrophila are nearly allied genera, inhabiting the Indian Region, and remarkable for their beautiful blue plumage. Sittella, with four or five species, is found in Australia and New Guinea, whilst Daphnoesitta occurs in New Guinea. The nuthatches are placed in the Passerine family Sittidae, intermediate between the Paridae and the Certhiidae.

 NUTMEG (from “nut,” and O. Fr. mugue, musk, Lat. muscus), the commercial name of a spice representing the kernel of the seed of Myristica fragrans (fig. 1), a dioecious evergreen tree, about 50 to 60 ft. high, found wild in the Banda Islands and a few of the neighbouring islands, extending to New Guinea.