THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 3 



too, has all sorts of fascinating crinkles and curves. The 

 plant sprawls about over the ground and rarely shows any- 

 particular resort to its tendrils. Perhaps it is slowly abandon- 

 ing an old habit — or, is it, on the other hand, acquiring a new 

 one? There is a chance for the philosopher to speculate. 



The squash plant loves to make a dash for freedom, and 

 to tumble out of the garden bed down an embankment, or to 

 scale some stone wall not too high. Squashes and pumpkins — 

 we now speak of the fruit — in late autumn love to expose their 

 golden sides, Midas-touched, to the sun. They seem types 

 of utmost prosperity — suggesting bounteous dinners and the 

 re-gathered family. Always we expect to see Cinderella's 

 coachman, in fairy livery bedight, step up and take possession 

 of the plumpest. A fitting gift for carriage purposes surely — 

 better than costly motor even, from any fairy God-mother. 



Brown University^ Providence, R. I. 



SOME FOREIGN NUTS 



BY MISS PAULINE KAUFMAN. 



WE HAVE so much foreign food material in daily use 

 that it takes something very striking to attract notice. 

 Under this head comes what the dealer calls the paradise nut, 

 a name, though richly deserved, recognized by neither diction- 

 ary, botany nor any work on horticulture. More success at- 

 tends the botanical name Lecythis ollaris, or pot-tree of Brazil. 

 The tree belongs to the Myrtle family (Myrtaceae). Its 

 leathery leaves are alternate, and the clusters of large flowers 

 are borne in a raceme. The hard woody capsule, bearing the 

 nut-like seeds, is about six inches in diameter, shaped like a 

 vase or urn, with a circular lid, two inches across. When the 

 fruit has reached maturity, the lid opens with a sharp report, 

 scattering the nuts, and giving the glad tiding to the monkeys 

 in the neighborhood. The nuts or seeds are from two to three 



