MISCELLANEOUS NUTS. 265 



CREAM NUT. A local name of Brazil nut. 



DAWA NUT. See Litcbi nut. 



EARTH NUT, OR EARTH cHESTNut, ETC. A small, 

 low-growing, herbaceous plant of the carrot family 

 ( Umbelliferce), common in waste of uncultivated grounds 

 in Great Britain and other countries of northern Europe. 

 Formerly botanists supposed there were two species, but 

 of late only one, the Bunium ~bulbocastanum. On the 

 roots there are small, nut-like tubers, of a sweetish taste, 

 and they are eaten by children, either in the raw state 

 or after being roasted. These tubers have various local 

 names, and in addition to the above, they are called 

 kipper nuts, and pig nuts in England, but a familiar 

 local name in Scotland is lousy nuts, because it is said 

 that eating them is sure to breed lice. But this story 

 may have been invented by parents to deter their chil- 

 dren from digging and eating the roots of wild plants. 

 Willdenow, in naming this species, certainly recognized 

 its edible qualities, and that children were fond of it, 

 else he would not have called it an earth chestnut, 

 bulbo, bulb, and castanum from castanea, the chestnut. 



ELK NUT. See Oil nut. 



FISTICKE NUT. See Pistacia nut. 



Fox NUT. The seeds of a floating, annual aquatic 

 plant, the Euryale ferox, native of India, and belonging 

 to the water lily family (Nymphceacece). It is a handsome 

 plant, with leaves about two feet in diameter, of a rich 

 purple on the underside, with thorn-like spines on the 

 veins. Flowers deep violet-red. The seeds of this spe- 

 cies are eaten by the natives, the same as the aborigines 

 of this country gathered the seeds of our indigenous 

 Nelumbium luteum, under the name of water chinquapin, 

 using them for food in the late fall and winter. 



GINKGO NUT. The large, round, white, somewhat 

 flattened, nut-like seeds of the now common maidenhair 

 tree, or Ginkgo biloba, also known as Salisburia adianti- 



