ANACARDIUM. 



DC.prodr. ii. 62. Roxb. fl. ind. ii. 312. W. and A. i. 168. 

 — (Rheede hi. t. 54. Rumph. i. t. 69.) Cassuvium pomiferum 

 Zaw. Acajuba occidentalis Gcertn. t. 40. f. 2.) — A common 

 tree in the East and West Indies, in sandy soil. 



Trunk short and very crooked. Young shoots smooth. Leaves alter- 

 nate, rather short-stalked, obovate, with a rounded or emarginate apex ; 

 smooth on both sides and of a hard texture, from 4 to 8 inches long. 

 Panicles terminal, bearing small barren and fertile hermaphrodite 

 flowers intermixed, Bracts gibbous, lanceolate. Calyx inferior, 5-cleft 

 nearly to the base ; divisions oblong, acute, and nearly smooth. Petals 

 5, linear-lanceolate, revolute, of a pale yellow colour, with longitudinal 

 pink stripes. Filaments generally 9, united at the base into a ring 

 round the ovary, 1 of them, particularly in the sterile flowers, more than 

 double the length of the others. Anthers apparently till fertile, that of 

 the major filament large. Ovary in the males minute, with a very short 

 style, in the females obliquely obcordate, 1 -celled, with 1 reniform seed 

 attached to the side of its cell. Style long, becoming convolute. Fruit 

 a kidney-shaped ash-brown nut standing upon a pear-shaped crimson 

 fleshy receptacle. — In the coats of the nut is an abundance of a caustic 

 thick oil, which blisters when applied to the skin and has been used as 

 a caustic for warts, corns, obstinate ulcers, ringworms, &c. The fleshy 

 peduncle is an agreeable fruit. The vapour of the oil when roasting 

 will often produce violent swelling and inflammation. A gum resembling 

 gum Arabic and called Cashew gum is exuded from the bark. Pereira. 

 This gum, which in its properties almost entirely agrees with gum 

 arabic, but is rather more astringent, is used in Brazil in the same 

 manner as that substance. The bookbinders in the principal towns 

 sometimes wash books with a solution of it, which is said to keep 

 off the moths and ants. The fresh acid juice of the flower-stalks is 

 used in Lemonade ; wine and vinegar too are made of it by ferment- 

 ation. The sympathetic effect which the nut, borne about the person, 

 has upon chronical inflammations in the eyes, especially such as are of 

 a scrophulous nature, is remarkable. Martins. 



SEMECARPUS. 



Flowers polygamous-dioecious. Calyx 5-cleft. Petals5, inserted 

 under the margin of the disk, sessile, very spreading : aestivation 

 imbricative. Stamens 5, inserted under the margin of the disk, 

 equal, distinct. Disk cup-shaped. Ovary free, sessile, 1 -celled. 

 Styles 3. Stigmas clavate, retuse. Fruit somewhat cordate, 

 sessile on the enlarged receptacle ; pericarp hard and thick, 

 containing between the inner and outer lamina cells full of a 

 corrosive resinous juice. Seed suspended. Cotyledons thick, 

 fleshy, plano-convex. Radicle superior, minute, concealed 

 within the apex of the cotyledons. 



587. S. Anacardium Linn.f. suppl. 182. Roxb. corom.'i. t. 12. 

 /. ind. ii. 83. DC. prodr. ii. 62. W. and A. i. 168. — Ana- 

 cardium latifolium Lam. enc. i. 139. illustr. t. 208. A. offi- 

 cinarum Gozrtn. — Mountainous parts of the East Indies. 

 (Marking nut.) 

 283 



