IN IDLE MOMENT 23 



The good folks at home were told that the seeds of the 

 Australian cherry "grow on the outside." The fruit 

 of the cashew or marking-nut tree betrays a similar 

 feature in more pronounced fashion. The fruit is 

 really the thickened, succulent stalk of the kidney- 

 shaped nut. The tint of the fruit being attractive, 

 unsophisticated children eat of it and earn scalded lips 

 and swollen tongues, while their clothing is stained 

 indelibly by the juice. Botanists know the handsome 

 tree as Semecarpus australiensis , but by the indignant 

 parent of the child with tearful and distorted features 

 and ruined raiment it is offensively called the ' ' tar- 

 tree," and is subject to shrill denunciations. The fleshy 

 stalk beneath the fruit is, however, quite wholesome 

 either raw or cooked, but the oily pericarp contains a 

 caustic principle actually poisonous, so that unwary 

 children would of a certainty eat the worst part. The 

 tree, which belongs to the same order as the mango, 

 has a limited range, and there are those who would like 

 to see it exterminated, forgetful that in other parts of 

 the world the edible parts are enjoyed, and also that 

 a valuable means to the identification of linen is manu- 

 factured from it. A tree that is ornamental, that 

 provides dense shade, that bears pretty and strange 

 fruit, an edible part, and provides an economic principle, 

 is not to be condemned off-hand because of one blot on 

 its character. 



An Indian representative of the genera produces a 

 nut which when roasted is highly relished, though 

 dubiously known as the coffin-nail or promotion nut, 

 but there is no reason to believe that it is specially 

 indigestible unless eaten in immoderate quantity. 



One of the many bewilderments of botany is that 

 plants of one family exhibit characteristics and habits 

 so divergent that the casual observer fails to recognise 



