NUTS, 289 



stalk. Between the two layers of the pericarp is a quan- 

 tity of oil, of so acrid a nature that it often blisters the 

 lips or fingers of those who crack the nut incautiously, and 

 which has been used successfully to remove ringworm, 

 corns, &c., but needs to be applied with great care. The 

 kernel, which is much esteemed in Jamaica, abounds with 

 milky juice, and is eaten raw when fresh, but after having 

 been gathered some time requires to be roasted, a process 

 which frees it from the oil. Dried and broken, they are 

 often put into Madeira wine, being thought greatly to 

 improve its flavour. The trunk of the tree when tapped 

 sends forth a milky fluid, which is a natural marking-ink, 

 staining linen a deep and indelible black. 



Last in this notice of the nutty tribe, though certainly 

 by no means least, being, indeed, in point of size, the 

 monarch of them all, we reach at length the Cocoa Nut, 

 which, though seldom brought to table, is yet so universal 

 a favourite with the juvenile portion of the community, 

 that there is, perhaps, hardly a schoolboy to be found (or 

 schoolgirl either, it might be added) who has not saved 

 his half-pence for its sake, and deemed that day a memo- 

 rable one when the wholesale expenditure of a Qd. made 

 him the envied possessor of a whole nut. This fruit, grow- 

 ing singly as it does, is one of a class of. botanical mys- 

 teries,for the ovary of the blossom consists of three carpels 

 or divisions, and as a natural consequence three ovules, 

 or embryo seeds, in due time make their appearance ; yet 

 instead of developing in a threefold fruit, as according to 

 all rules it ought to do, two of these ovules are invariably 

 absorbed, or in some way disappear, and only a single nut 

 comes to perfection ; the sole eventual trace of its triple 

 promise being the schoolboy's " monkey face," the three 

 indentations at the end of the shell. The fruit, however, 

 being but one to all intents and purposes, has but a single 

 germ to put forth, and thus requires but a single outlet, 

 and therefore is it that two of these indentations are found 

 to be but mere surface marks, while the third is a real 

 doorway in the hard shell through which the sprout 

 emerges which is to form the future plant. As the nut 

 becomes old, the milk which it had contained disappears, 



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