March 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



SOME ECONOMIC USES OP NUTS AND SEEDS. 345 



They are much esteemed in confectionary, or roasted and eaten in 

 milk. 



The fruit of Canarium commune in taste is something like an almond. 

 An oil is expressed from the nuts, which in Java is used in lamps, and 

 when fresh is mixed with food. Bread is also made from the nuts in 

 the Island of Celebes. If eaten fresh or indulged in too freely, they 

 are apt to bring on diarrhoea. From the almond of the Geoffroya spinosa, 

 Jacquin, is extracted a white and nutritive fecula, of which the inhabi- 

 tants of parts of Brazil make much use. 



The natives eat the fruit of the wild almond of the Cape (Brabejum 

 stellatifolium, R. Br.), after many days soaking in water, as they attri- 

 bute noxious qualities to it when fresh. The roasted kernel serves 

 as a substitute for coffee. 



The nuts of the Otaheite chestnut (Jnocarpus eckdis) are called Rutta 

 by the natives. The kernel of these is kidney-shaped, about an inch in 

 diameter, and is eaten roasted by the inhabitants of the Society and 

 Friendly Isles, the New Hebrides, New Guinea, the Molucca Isles, &c. 

 It is sweetish, but less pleasant than the chestnut, harder, and less fari- 

 naceous. 



The albuminous seeds of Morinda bracteata, the bean of Inga dulcis, 

 the acorn of Castanea indica, and the seed of the Jack fruit (Artocarpus 

 integrifolius) when roasted are articles of food. 



The seeds of the Moreton Bay chestnut (Castanospermum Australe) 

 are eaten by the natives on all occasions ; it has, when roasted, the flavour 

 of a Spanish chestnut ; and Europeans who have subsisted on it exclu- 

 sively for two days state that no other unpleasant effect was the result 

 than a slight pain in the bowels, and that only when it was eaten raw. 

 It grows along the rivers Logan and Brisbane, in Queensland. Although 

 the large and handsome seeds are eaten by the natives of Brisbane river, 

 some persons assert that they are bard, astringent, and not at all better 

 than acorns. 



The cone of the Auracaria Bidwelli, Hook., (native name Bunya 

 Bunya) of Northern Australia, is produced on the extreme upper branches 

 It is large, measuring nine to twelve inches in length, and nine inches 

 diameter ; on corning to maturity, the seeds are readily shed ; they are 

 from two to two and a half inches long, by three-quarters of an inch 

 broad ; sweet before being perfectly ripe, and after that resemble roasted 

 chestnuts in taste. They are plentiful once in three years ; and when 

 the ripening season arrives, which is generally in the month of January, 

 the aborigines assemble in large numbers, from a great distance around, 

 and feast upon the seeds ; each tribe has its own particular set of trees, 

 and of these each family has a certain number allotted, which are handed 

 down from generation to generation with great exactness. The Bunya 

 is remarkable as being the only hereditary property which any of the 

 aborigines are known to possess, and it is therefore generally respected 

 by the settlers. 



VOL. IV. G G 



