MISCELLANEOUS NUTS. 359 



to this species, some claiming that it is a large tree, with 

 wood similar to mahogany ; others that it is only a small 

 shrub, only five or six feet high. It has lance-shaped 

 leaves, male and female flowers in globular heads, and 

 usually on separate trees. The fruit is about the size of 

 a plum, containing one seed or nut, which is only edi- 

 ble after roasting. 



BuiTALO NUT. — See Oil nut. 



BuTTEKNUT. — See Souari nut. 



Byzantium nut. — See Filberts, Chap. VI. 



Candle nuts. — A small evergreen tree, the Aleu- 

 rites triloba of the spurgewort family [Euphorliacem). 

 It is a native of most warm countries of the East : India, 

 Malay, southern Japan, and nearly all the islands of the 

 Pacific ocean, and in some of these it is cultivated for 

 the fruit, which is about two inches in diameter. In 

 the center there is a hard nut, very oily, with the flavor 

 of the walnut. The oil obtained from these nuts is in 

 common use among the natives of the Polynesian islands. 

 In the Hawaiian group the kernels are strung on a 

 small, dry stick, which serves the purpose of a wick, 

 and then one end lighted, as with an ordinary tallow 

 or wax candle, hence probably the common name of 

 candle nut. These nuts are said to be used in the 

 same way in India. Large quantities of oil is also 

 expressed from them and used for various purposes, 

 and occasionally small quantities are exported to Euro- 

 pean countries. 



Cape chestnut. — The name of a beautiful ever- 

 green ornamental tree, native of south Africa, and re- 

 cently introduced into European gardens from the Cape 

 of Good Hope, hence its common, and its specific sci- 

 entific name, Cdlodendron capense. It belongs to the 

 Eue family (Eutacece). The flowers are red, produced 

 in long terminal racemes, the tree growing about forty 

 feet high, and said to be one of the finest trees of that 



