262 THE XUT CULTURIST. 



six to ten or more inches long, containing fifty to a -hun- 

 dred seeds, resembling beans more than they do nuts. 

 When the fruit is ripe it is gathered, at which time the 

 seeds are covered with a gum-like substance, and to 

 remove this they are subjected to a slight fermentation, 

 after which they are dried in the sun, this giving them 

 their usual brown color. Chocolate nut trees are exten- 

 sively cultivated in Brazil, New Grenada, Trinidad, and, 

 in fact, throughout tropical America, and their cultiva- 

 tion is, upon the whole, very profitable, as the demand 

 is almost unlimited. 



CLEARING NUT. This is an East India name for 

 the seeds of Strychnos potatorum, a plant belonging to 

 the well-known mix vomica family (Loganiacece). It is 

 a small tree, native of India, the wood of which is used 

 for various purposes. The fruit is about the size of a 

 cherry, and contains one seed ; this is dried, and used 

 for clearing muddy water, this being effected by rubbing 

 one of the little nuts around the sides of the vessel that 

 is to be filled, after which the water is poured in, and 

 then, through some unknown agency, all the foreign 

 matter settles, leaving the liquid perfectly pure, clear 

 and wholesome. 



COCOANUT. One of the most widely-known and 

 largest of edible nuts ; the product of Cocos nucifera, a 

 lofty, tree-like palm (Palmce or PalmacecB). It is a 

 native of tropical Africa, India, Malay, and of nearly all 

 the islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. It only 

 thrives near the seacoast or where the sea breezes reach 

 it, requiring no special care after the nuts and young 

 plants once become established in a congenial soil. The 

 coco palm grows from fifty to one hundred feet high, 

 with pinnate leaves from ten to twenty feet long. The 

 nuts are produced in clusters of a dozen or more, and 

 when full grown are somewhat triangular and a foot 

 long, the outer coat or husk composed of a tough fiber. 



