MISCELLANEOUS KUTS. 283 



This tallow or grease is used for making soap, burning 

 in lamps, and also for dressing cloth. 



Tempekance nut. — An English name of cola nut. 



ToEREY NUT. — The hard, nut-like seeds of Torreya 

 nucifira, of Siebold, or Taxus nucifera, of Ksempfer, 

 and Oaryotaxus nucifera, of Zuccarini, a tree native of 

 Japan, where these nuts are eaten by the Japanese, 

 either raw or roasted. An oil is also extracted from the 

 nuts, for use in cooking or for burning in lamps. Tliis 

 Japanese tree belongs to the same genus as the so-called 

 California nutmeg (see Nutmeg) and our Florida stink- 

 ing cedar {T. taxifolia), also the great Chinese cedar 

 {T. grandis). 



Water chestnut. — Also known as water caltrops. 

 The seeds of several species of water plants of the genus 

 Trapa, of the 

 evening prim- 

 rose family 

 {Onagracece). 

 In southern 

 Europe and 

 eastward there 

 is a species 

 found in ponds, '^«'- i"'" ^a™« ches^ut. 



the seeds of which are called Jesuit chestnuts {T. na- 

 tans), and in India and Ceylon a closely allied one, 

 the Singhara-nut plant {^T. hispinosa), while in Lago 

 Maggiore there is another (71 verianensis), but all may 

 be varieties of one and the same species, including the 

 Trapa hicornis, a two-horned water chestnut, exten- 

 sively used in China and Japan as food under various 

 local names. In China they are called Ling, and of 

 late years have been occasionally imported and sold, 

 more as curiosities than for eating. These seeds or nuts 

 are of a dark brown color, and of the form and size 

 shown in Fig. 107, resembling, iu miniature, the skull of 



