JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE K^EMPFERI A. 



This very mild, innoxious, and nutritious food, is 

 remarkable for being the produce of the root of the 

 Maniliot, which, when in its fresh state, is highly 

 poisonous; the juice with which it abounds would 

 form a deadly draught, and is even used by the 

 savages to envenom their spears and darts. The dele- 

 terious principle is very volatile, passing off from the 

 roots after they have been kept for thirty-six hours, 

 and is immediately dissipated by heat. Two ounces 

 of cassava will suffice for a meal, and a pound will 

 support a man for twenty-four hours. 



JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE is the Helianthut 

 tuberosits of Linnaeus, a well known culinary plant. 

 They are cultivated in the manner of potatoes, but 

 usually in some out of the way part of the garden, as 

 they grow tall, and when once planted are difficult to 

 eradicate. 



JIGGER. See CHIGOE. 



JONQUIL is the Narcissus jonquilla of Linnaeus, 

 one of the sweetest and most elegant of its family. 



JUGLANDE^E. A small natural order of trees 

 comprising only two genera, viz., Juglans and Carya 

 the walnut and the hickory nut. Their flowers are 

 monoecious ; those bearing stamens are collected into 

 aments or catkins, and the pistilline flowers are single, 

 or in twos or threes together on short footstalks. 

 The fruit is drupaceous, globular, or sub-ovate. The 

 embryo is large, with two wrinkled, oily, and fleshy 

 cotyledons, the radicle short and superior, and the 

 plumula with two pennate leaves. 



The JuglandcoE are much esteemed both for their 

 timber and fruit. Before the introduction of maho- 

 gany and other modern fancy woods, the walnut was 

 much prized and greatly employed in the construction 

 of ornamental furniture ; its chief use now is for gun- 

 stocks, and during the late war fetched a high price. 



The fleshy cotyledons of the nuts abound in oil, 

 which is in some places expressed. It is one of the 

 oils which do not congeal by cold, and which, drying 

 on exposure to the air, are valuable in the art of 

 painting. It is also used instead of olive and almond 

 oils in cookery. The mark or nut-bread, as it is 

 called, which is left after the expressure of the oil, is 

 very nutritious, and is used to fatten poultry and 

 other domestic animals. 



An opinion has long prevailed that the exhalations 

 of the common walnut-tree are deleterious, producing 

 stupor, &c., in those who sit under its shade. These 

 accounts are, doubtless, exaggerated ; but it is well 

 known that the strong odour of the leaves produces 

 headach in many persons. 



The different species of hickory yield nuts less 

 grateful than the true walnuts, but still wholesome 

 and nutritious. The best are those of the Carya 

 oliva-forniis and sulcata ; the first named is the Pekea 

 nut, and its flavour is delicious. The bark of C. alba 

 is acrid, and used as a caustic ; its wood is of a 

 light colour, and valuable for its elasticity and 

 tottghness. 



JULUS (Linnaeus). A genus of apterous insects 

 belonging to the order Chilognatha of MacLeay, and 

 to the class Myriapoda of Latreille. The body is 

 very long and cylindric, and the insects, when dis- 

 turbed, roll themselves into a spiral coil. For further 

 details relative to these insects, see the article CHI- 

 LOGNATHA; and for an account of the imperfect species 

 of metamorphoses which they undergo, see the article 

 INSECT, where the common English species, .Tutus 

 ierrestrii, is figured at three periods of its existence. 



JUNCAGINEvE. A small natural order of in- 

 significant bog plants containing only two genera ; 

 viz. Sc/ieuchzeria and Triglochin. These plants are not 

 floaters, but grow more like rushes; their exalbu- 

 minous seede, however, easily distinguish them from 

 the Juncecc. They are all innoxious, but none of 

 them have been applied to any useful purpose ; they 

 contain very little nutritious matter, and form poor 

 fodder, which but few animals will eat. 



JUNCE^E. A small natural order comprising 

 some of the lowest grades of vascular plants. They 

 are generally herbaceous, rarely suff'ruticose ; the un- 

 derground stems or rhizomata are scaly, with long 

 subterranean divisions. Hence they are often planted 

 to strengthen sea and river walls, and various em- 

 bankments. In Holland the Juncus acutus and J. 

 maritimus vie with the mat-grasses and sand-sedges 

 in protecting the low lands from the encroachments 

 of the sea, by the strength their long interlacing roots 

 give to the soil. The Juncince are none of them 

 poisonous plants, but they are now applied to few 

 domestic purposes, save the making mats, chair-bot- 

 toms, and brooms ; their chief occupation being gone, 

 since the advance of luxury has spread the apart- 

 ments of our citizens with carpets, although, as late 

 as the time of the last Henry, the king's chamber 

 was only strewed with rushes, and one of the charges 

 against cardinal Wolsey for extravagance was having 

 his room restrewed so often as once a week. 



JUNIPERUS (Linmeus). A genus of hardy 

 trees and shrubs, chiefly natives of the northern parts 

 of the world. The flowers are dioecious, and the 

 genus belongs to the extensive order Coniferce. The 

 J. excclsa is a timber tree in Siberia ; and so are 

 those indigenous to Bermuda, Barbadoes, and Vir- 

 ginia. Many are only low bushes, as the common 

 British one which covers large tracts of waste ground. 

 The wood of the juniper is hard and durable, and its 

 bark may be twisted into cables ; but the chief use 

 of the plant is to flavour ardent spirits. Hollands 

 owe their taste to the berries of the juniper, and 

 English gin is commonly believed to be flavoured 

 with them also ; but it is generally unconscious of their 

 presence, the British manufacturers of that " cordial" 

 poison being mostly content with the substitution of 

 oil of turpentine ! Juniper berries are stimulating and 

 diuretic, their properties depending on an essential 

 oil which they contain. From six to eight hundred 

 tons are annually imported into this country, but 

 the oppressive duty to which they are subject, full 100 

 per cent., limits their consumption. 



JUSSIEUA (Linnaeus). Agenus of water-plants, 

 mostly biennials, belonging to the natural order 

 Onagrarice. Generic order : calyx tubular, somewhat 

 three-sided, the limb of four . persisting divisions ; 

 petals inserted into the calyx, and spreading, com- 

 monly four, though sometimes five or six ; stamens 

 eight, nine, or ten filaments inserted into the calyx 

 short, anthers oval and erect ; style cylindrical ; 

 stigma peltate ; seed-vessel four-celled, four-valved, 

 and many seeded ; seeds naked, smooth, and minute. 

 Some of the species are kept in our aquariums, and 

 propagated by seeds. 



K^MPFERIA (Linnaeus). A genus of East 

 Indian herbs, having thick tuberous roots. The plants 

 belong to the first class of Linnaeus, and to the order 

 Scitaminece. The K. galanga is cultivated in India 

 for its roots, which are used as an ingredient in currie, 



