306 POTATOES. STARCH. 



a surface as possible to the light.* Potatoes grown in 

 orchards are watery, in consequence of the leaves and branches 

 of the trees intercepting the light; the quantity of nutrition 

 they contain being in direct proportion to the quantity of light 

 which they receive. 



. MRS. F. 



Starch is a common secretion among vegetables; besides the 

 plants already alluded to, we find it in the tubers of the Jeru- 

 salem artichoke; in fleshy roots, as in the the briony; in the 

 centre of the stems, as in the sago palm; in the receptacles 

 of plants, as in the artichokes; in the liber of some trees, as 

 the pine and the birch; and in the rind of certain fruits, as the 

 date, the bread-fruit, &c. 



ESTHER. 



Did you ever, Henrietta, see those triangular nuts in the 

 shops which are called Brazil nuts? 



HENRIETTA. 



Yes, often, and have wondered what they were. 



They are the fruit of a large tree, of from a hundred to a 

 hundred and twenty feet in height, and with a trunk from two 

 to three feet in diameter. It is called the Juvia or Almen- 

 dron. Its botanical name is Bertholletia excelsa, and it 

 belongs to the natural order of Myrtacex. It does not flower 

 until its fifteenth year, and its leaves are two feet long. The 

 seeds, which are sold in England and Portugal, under the 

 name of Brazil nuts, form a principal article of commerce 

 with the natives of the Esmeralda, the Orinoco, and the 

 Amazon. There are generally from fifteen to two-and-twenty 

 nuts enclosed in a shell or pericarp, which is less than fifty 

 or sixty days in forming, and of which the woody part, 

 nevertheless, is so hard that though only half an inch in 

 thickness, it is with difficulty that it can be sawn asunder. 



* Hints on Vegetation by Sir John Sinclair. 



