THE CASHEW NUT. 55 



are in contact they bear the marks of pressure, being 

 pinched in to an edge on this side, but rounded off on the 

 outer side ; the colour is a fine reddish-brown, and they are 

 covered over with close-set rounded tubercles. The kernel 

 is perhaps the most agreeable of all the nut kind; it is as 

 bland and sweet as an almond, with a softer texture, and a 

 milky flavour. Although they keep well, very few are im- 

 ported into England, probably from the great difficulty in 

 gathering them, in consequence of the magnitude of the trees 

 producing them. The timber is highly valued for ship- 

 building, and the oil expressed from the nuts is much es- 

 teemed in Demarara; it equals that of the olive in sweet- 

 ness. It is the Pekea tuberculosa of Aublet. 



The Cashew Nut. Anacardium occidentale. (Nat. 

 Ord. Anacardiacece.) (Plate VI. fig. £9.) 



The Cashew is a small kidney-shaped nut, of an ash-grey 

 colour, frequently seen in the shops of dealers in foreign 

 dried fruits, by whom however very few are sold. The shell 

 of the nut consists of three distinct parts; the outermost 

 (epicarp) and innermost (endocarp) are hard and dry, the 

 intervening one (mesocarp) consists chiefly of a clammy 

 viscid juice, of such an exceedingly acrid nature, that per- 

 sons attempting to crack the nut in the mouth are sure to 



