THE TECHNOLOGIST. [March 1, 1864. 



340 SOME ECONOMIC USES OF NUTS AND SEEDS. 



(Pistacia terebinthus) into Egypt ; and Belon mentions a tradition that the 

 Persians lived on these seeds before becoming acquainted with bread. 



Tbe turner has profited largely by the extensive introduction of the 

 vegetable ivory and coquilla nuts from South America, which are now 

 applied to a great variety of useful and ornamental purposes. They are 

 mere waste products in the countries whence they are obtained. These 

 nuts have been already described in the Technologist, vol. ii, p. 38, 

 and vol. iv., p. 259. 



■ The seeds of the shreetaly or talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera), 

 being a species of vegetable ivory, are turned into marbles, beads used 

 by certain sects of Hindoos, button moulds, and various small articles. 

 Little bowls and other fancy ornaments are made from them; and, 

 when polished and coloured red, are easily passed off for genuine coral. 

 These nuts could be obtained in large quantities in Canara Malabar and 

 other parts of India ; the chief objection is that they are of small size. 

 A kind of flour is obtained from the nut. 



The fruit of the doon pahn is turned into beads for rosaries, and, in 

 Africa, made into little oval-shaped cases for holding snuff. These have 

 a small opening at one end, stopped by a wooden peg. 



The ribbed seeds of the common bead tree or Persian lilac {Melia 

 azedarach, Linn.) are frequently bored and strung for beads by Eoman 

 Catholics. A valuable oil is also produced from them. 



The fruit of the bladder nut tree (Staphylea pinnata) is a bladdery 

 capsule, containing a nut as hard as bone. The nuts, in some parts of 

 Europe, are threaded for paternosters by Romanists, and made into neck- 

 laces and chaplets. They are also called cut-noses and false pistachios. 

 The kernel of the nut has a little of the flavour of pistachios, but is very 

 acrid, and occasions nausea if eaten to any extent. It yields by expres- 

 sion a bland oil. 



The large red seeds of Adenanihera pavonina, a leguminous tree, 

 called in India red sandal wood, weighing almost uniformly four grains, 

 are frequently employed by jewellers and others in the East as petty 

 weights. In Burmah they are called the large may, in contradistinction 

 to the seeds of Abrus precatorius, which are known as the small ruay. 

 Two small mays are there equal to one large, and valued at a pice, and 

 four large mays are equal to one bai, or an anna, which is ljd. In 

 some parts of India the seeds are called goonch. Very pretty rosaries, 

 bracelets, and other trinkets, are formed of them. A cement is made by 

 beating them up with borax and water. The natives in Travancore 

 have an idea that, taken internally, they are poisonous, especially when 

 in a powdered state. But in Ceylon the seeds called madeteye are 

 roasted and eaten. 



The beautiful seeds of the wild liquorice plant (Abrus precatorius), of 

 a bright scarlet colour, with a jet black spot at the top, are used by the 

 jewellers and druggists of India as weights, each weighing almost uni- 

 formly one grain ; also for beads and rosaries, whence the specific name. 



