MISCELLANEOUS NUTS. 



277 



been extensively used as food, from the earliest times 

 down to the present day. Nearly all the ancient authors 

 refer to them as among the valuable products of the 

 countrj. Macrobius, in his story of the Saturnalia, 

 speaks of the cones as Nuces vel Poma Pinea. These 

 pine nuts are called PinoccM in Italy and Sicily, and 

 occasionally a few reach this country, where the Italian 

 name has been corrupted into Pinolas. These seeds or 

 nuts are used for desserts, puddings and cakes, also 

 eaten raw at table, 

 as with almonds. 

 They have a slight 

 taste of turpentine, 

 but it is not strong 

 enough to be at all 

 disagreeable. 



In this country 

 we have several na- 

 tive species bearing 

 very large edible 

 seeds, and they are 

 known in the West 

 under the general 

 name of Pition, or 

 nut pines. The 

 best of these nuts, 

 to my taste, are the 

 seeds of Pinus 

 edulis, so named 

 by the late Dr. Engelmann, because of its large, sweet 

 and edible seeds. It is a small, low-growing tree, more 

 or less common on dry hills and slopes, from Colorado 

 southward through New Mexico, and into western 

 Texas. The seeds of Pinus Parry ana and Pinus cem- 

 broides, of Arizona and Lower California, are also called 

 Piflons, and largely gathered by the Indians. Farther 



FIG. 104. BRANCH OF NUT PINE. 



