114 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



In fields and open places in woods. Very common and gene- 

 rally distl'ibuted. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Spring 

 and Summer. 



Hootstock a roundish chestnut-coloured tuber, closely resembling 

 that of Carum Bulbocastanum, to which, indeed, the plant bears a 

 striking resemblance. The radical leaves are very similar, having 

 the ultimate segments elliptical-strapshaped ; the stem-leaves, how- 

 ever, have the segments considerably narrower and longer, some- 

 times much longer. The umbels are very similar, but the flowers 

 are generally rather smaller. The flowers are monoecious in all 

 the specimens I have examined, the female more numerous than the 

 male, which have no inferior ovary ; petals of the female flowers 

 larger and more obovate than in the male, in which they are scarcely 

 notched. The cromocarp, however, is very different, being elliptical- 

 ovoid, tapering so much towards the apex that it almost forms a 

 beak, of a deeper and more purple-brown, the ridges concolorous 

 and very slightly marked, and the inner side of the albumen is 

 slightly furrowed. The stylopods are conical, and the styles in 

 fruit are erect and parallel. 



Common JEartli-nut. 



French, Suron-T&rrenoix. German, Erdnuss. 



The common names of this plant in England are various. It is known as earth- 

 nut, pig-nut, ar-nut, kipper-nut, hawk-nut, jar-nut, earth-chestnut, and ground-nut. 

 Though really excellent in taste and unobjectionable as food, this nut is disregarded in 

 England by all but pigs and children, both of whom appreciate it and seek eagerly for 

 it. Dr. Withering says, the roots, raw, boiled, or roasted, are little inferior to 

 chestnuts, and would form an excellent addition to our winter desserts. In the 

 time of Gerarde their merits seem to have been known, for he says : " These herbes 

 do grow in pastures and cornfields almost everywhere ; there is a field adjoining to 

 Highgate on the right side of the middle of the village, covered over with the same, 

 and likewise in the next field to the conduit heads by Maribone, near the way that leads 

 to Paddington by London. The root is good roasted for divers complaints. The Dutch 

 people doe use to eat them boiled and buttered as we do parsneps and carrots, which so 

 eaten comfort the stomach, and yield great nourishment." In Sweden they constitute 

 an article of trade ; in Holland and some parts of the Alps they are added to soups 

 and broths with advantage. John Ray, in wiiting of the wonderful adaptation of the 

 forms of animals to their modes of living, specially mentions the marvellous instinct 

 displayed by pigs in their search after that portion of their food, for which they must 

 burrow in the ground with their snouts. After stating that in some places they are 

 employed instead of dogs in hunting for truffles and morels, he goes on to say : 

 " So I have myself observed, that in pastures where there are earth-nuts to be found 

 up and down in several patches, though the roots lie deep in the ground and the 

 stalks be dead long before and rpiite gone, the swine will, by their scent, easily find 

 them out, and root only in those places where they grow." 



