ANACARDIUM OCCIDENTALE. (Nat. ord. Anacardiacese.) 



ANACARDIUM, Roxb. — GEN. CHAR. Flowers polygamous, calyx 5-partite, segments imbricate erect deciduous, petals 5 narrow imbricate, 

 disk filling up nearly the whole of the tube of the calyx and combining the base of the stamens and petah, stamen3 8-10 unequal all or 1-4 only fertile 

 filaments joined together at the base, ovary free sessile obovate or obcordate, style oblique filiform, stigma punctiform, ovule pendulous from the f unicle 

 which ascends from the side of the cell near the base, nut reniform oblique, supported on a fleshy pear-shaped enlargement of the torus and pedicel, 

 indebiscent, pericarp thick, containing in its substance cells full of an acrid oil, seed reniform ascending, testa membranaceous adhering, cotyledons 

 semilunate, fleshy, plano-convex, radicle short uncinate. Trees or shrubs, leaves alternate, petlolate simple coriaceous entire, panicles terminal, corym- 

 bosely-branched bracteated, flowers small. — Acajuba, Qcertn. Fruct. t. 40. Cassuvium, Lam. Diet. 1. 22. Ehinocarpus, Bert. Monodynamus, Pohl. 



ANACARDIUM OCCIDENTALE. (Linu.) A middling sized or small tree, trunk short thick and crooked, bark rough 

 and cracked, branches numerous spreading in every direction, leaves oval to obovate rounded or rather emavginate at the apex often 

 narrowed towards the base glabrous on both sides, rather coriaceous, 4-8 inches long. 2-4 broad, petiole 2-12 lines long, panicles 

 terminal bearing often both male and hermathrodite flowers, bractes gibbous lanceolate, calyx slightly hairy, petals linear lauceolate 

 revolute slightly hairy on the outside, pale yellow iu color streaked with pink, filaments generally 9 sterile and 1 fertile, the latter very 

 much longer or sometimes only slightly longer than the others, in the male flower there is hardly any rudiment of an ovary but a style 

 various in length sometimes as large as in the fertile flower with a 2 cleft apex. Ovary in the fertile flowers obcordate, stigma punctiform. 

 Linn ;—DG. Prod. ii. 62. 



This is the well knovm Cashew nut tree, indigenous to tropical America, but long since thoroughly established all over India near the sea 

 coast, the timber isojno value, but is occasionally used for packing cases, &c, and makes excellent charcoal ; the pericarp of the nut contains an 

 acrid, oil vjhich is used medicinally, it is very caustic, and will raise blisters on. the shin ; a transparent gum exudes from the trunk, not inferior 

 to gum, Arabic, vjhich is in use as a varnish, omd is said to keep off insects ; and in S. America book binders wash their books ■with a solution of 

 it; — the kernels are very nice vjhen roasted and are well known as a dessert dish in India, and they yield an oil; the enlarged crimson colored 

 pedicel to the fruit is also eaten and has an agreeable acidulous subastringenl flavor ; the tree is called Kdju in Hindustani. 



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