70 
odour, but that, when boiled, they have exactly the flavour of 
chestnuts. He calls attention further to the fact that if we admit 
the contention of physiologists that the human frame, in order to 
repair natural loss of tissue, requires daily 120 to 130 grammes of 
nitrogenous matter, 56 grammes of fatty matter and .">(>() grammes 
of carbohydrates, we have, even if the co-efficients of digestibility 
are taken into account, these elements almost exactly present 
in a kilogramme of Voandzeia seeds. He further remarks that 
these seeds afford the first instance known to him of a natural 
substance possessing to an equal degree the chemical features of a 
There is nothing to record concerning the mode of culture save 
that Pailleux and Boia {Potager (Pint nirhnu\ ed. 2, p. 568), 
quoting from a correspondent in the Transvaal, recommend that 
the growing plants be earthed up. 
As the name "ground-nut" implies, the seeds mature under 
ground. To facilitate the necessary burial of the pod— for none 
mature that cannot bury (Correa de Mello in Journ. Linn. Soc, 
xi.. -J.ji;— the short, somewhat flattened, hairy I .ranches lie prone 
"ii ih.' Mirface of the earth, often penetrating it where soft and 
always dipping downwards at the tip. On the primary and a few 
of the secondary branches are a few leaves, large, erect and 
triio hate. The inflorescences, either terminal or from the axils of 
tne leaves, are two-flo\veiv,| and in\a,-i;d,iv penetrate the earth 
unless prevented by some solid body. The flowers thus produced 
underground, one on each side of a wart-like termination to the 
.'M— ma; iv.n, , subterranean or may reach the surface bv the 
elongatmn of the pedicel and open as small pale yellow pea like 
blossoms. In fruiting the ovary is drawn underground. The 
olde e d^nTV° WerS i' r° Vided Uke th * ■«" wi "i 1""^'^ "« 
their r^lV ^ d ? n0t ? eVel °P e an y of the conspicuous parts ; 
their petals are absent and so reduced are the stamens 'l.;.t 
observers have thought them female. 
At times all the flowers are aerial, at times all are subterranean • 
much more elosefy allied tote IS t^t U * nmin08 » ■*»■ 
]»,» liS'v,," S as b ««* fled i„ N„„|, \ h ,, ri | l:1 
