THE GROUND NUT. 65 



any very great perfection in this country, hence we import 

 nearly all the chestnuts from Spain, whence they are usually 

 called Spanish chestnuts. In that country they come to the 

 greatest perfection, and are produced in such profusion as to 

 constitute a staple article of food to the agricultural classes. 

 Although not particularly nutritious, they are, especially 

 when roasted, much more easy of digestion than most of the 

 edible nuts; there is however one danger to children in 

 eating them, and that is from imperfect mastication, with- 

 out which they are difficult of digestion, and are apt to 

 create serious and even fatal stoppages of the bowels. 

 Several such cases are on record, but it has always been with 

 children ; and post mortem examinations in most cases have 

 shown the duodenum, or second stomach, wedged up with 

 little blocks of chestnut. The quantity of chestnuts im- 

 ported amounts to upwards of 50,000 bushels annually. 



A very small but remarkably sweet chestnut is now occa- 

 sionally imported from the United States of America ; it is 

 the produce of a distinct species, called Castanea Americana. 



The Ground Nut. Arachis liypogcea. (Nat. Ord. Le- 

 guminosce.) (Plate VI. fig. 31.) 



This curious nut is the produce of a plant which is indi- 

 genous to, and extensively cultivated on, the western coast 



F 



