280 THE KUT CULTURIST. 



than that of the common Brazil nut. In New York 

 city these nuts are sold under the name of Paradise 

 nuts. But this is probably only a local name, for I 

 hare been unable to find it in any botanical work. 

 These nuts rarely come to this country in <iny consid- 

 erable quantities ; a few hundred pounds at a time would 

 be considered a large consignment. 



Sassafras nut.— See Nutmeg, Chilean. 



Sassafras jjut. — See Nutmeg, Puehury. 



Snake stut. — A large, roundish fruit, about the 

 size of the black walnut, the product of the OpMocaryon 

 paradoxum, a large tree of the soapberry family {Sapin- 

 dacece), native of British Guiana. This nut takes its 

 name of "Snake nut," from the peculiar form of the 

 embryo of the seed, which is curled up spirally. The 

 Indians, thinking there must be some virtue in form, 

 use these nuts as an antidote for snake bites, although, 

 so far as known to science, they do not possess any 

 medicinal properties. 



SouARi NUT, OR BUTTERNUT. — TMs nut, like the 

 last, is a native of British Guiana, and is the fruit of the 

 Caryocar nuciferum, a noble tree, growing a hundred 

 feet high, having large, broad, trifoliate leaves, resem- 

 bling those of our common horse-chestnut, but not 

 quite as broad. The flowers are very large, and, with 

 the tube, fully a foot long, of a deep purple on the out- 

 side, and yellow within. They are composed of five 

 thick, fleshy petals, and as showy as some of our best 

 and brightest-colored magnolias. The flowers are pro- 

 duced in terminal clusters or corymbs, succeeded by a 

 large, round, four-celled fleshy fruit five to six inches in 

 diameter ; but as some of the embryo nuts usually fail 

 to grow, it changes the form of the fruit as it enlarges 

 towards maturity, and only one or two of the nuts ma- 

 ture and ripen, very much as frequently occurs in both 

 the sweet and hor?c-n!icstnuts. The nuts are aflBxed to 



