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is really no nut at all, and therefore the botanist is at fault in 

 not correcting a gross error in nomenclature. Why should not 

 the urchin demand of the street roaster his five cents' worth of 

 hypogaean legumes and add to the accuracy of our mother tongue 

 as employed in commercial intercourse? It is thus seen that the 

 units, one to sometimes four or possibly five, are seeds inclosed 

 within a hard covering, the carpel. 



Fig. I. Branches of the peanut plant " laid down" and from their axils have 

 grown the peduncles that may develop fruits at their tips underground. Such 

 branches, when left upright fail to be fruitful and the flower-stalks disappear. 



Before we return to the blooming plant left standing in the 

 field, but not to wait for our coming, we might consider briefly 

 the pods of Arachis hypogaea in relation to those of some of its 

 more nearly related plants. This brings up the subject of kinship 

 so much in vogue in these days of genetics and eugenics. South 

 America (or Africa) holds the honor of being the home of our 

 savory boyhood delight, and therefore we can not go into our 

 fields and forests and point with the finger of pride to the sisters 

 or even first cousins of the subject in hand. Suffice it then that 

 the vetches, peas and beans should be more than neighborly and 

 time will tell whether any of the Leguminosae may admit the 

 peanut by wedlock into the local and very extensive household. 

 The interest that attaches to such an introduction may be the 



