EARTH OR GROUND NUT. 173 



seeds of the plant are more powerful as a 

 medicine than the roots. 



They are to be found in considerable 

 quantities at Henfleld in Sussex, growing in 

 a poor sandy soil, which produced broom 

 spontaneously ; particularly in July and Au- 

 gust when they are in blossom : the flowers 

 are like those of parsley or fennel, but smaller, 

 and seldom exceeding a foot in height ; the 

 leaves are something between those two 

 plants ; being less thready than the fennel, 

 and not so connected as the parsley. The 

 root is about the size of a Barcelona nut, and 

 in appearance like the Jerusalem artichoke ; 

 the taste very similar to the chesnut, but 

 more oily. 



The American ground-nut, or Pindars, 

 Arachis, is of the order of Papilionacece, and 

 of the Diadelphia Decandria class. 



The manner in which this nut is propa- 

 gated is very singular : as the flowers fall off, 

 the young pods are forced into the ground 

 by a natural motion of the stalk, where they 

 are entirely buried, and the pods are not to 

 be discovered without digging for them. 

 They are, says Lunan, very agreeable nuts, 

 and deserve to be more generally cultivated 



