HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



31 



The Nance is a fmall, round fruit 5 yellow, aromatic, 

 and favoury, with extremely fmall feeds, which grow into 

 trees peculiar to warm climates. 



The Chayoti is a round fruit, fimilar in the huflc, with 

 . which it is covered, to the chefnut, but four or five times 

 larger, and of a much deeper green colour. Its kernel 

 is of a greeniih white, and has a large ftone in the middle, 

 which is white, and like it in fubflance. It is boiled, and 

 the ftone eat with it. This fruit is produced by a twin- 

 ing perennial plant, the root of which is alfo good to 

 eat. 



The imprifoned nut, commonly fo called, becaufe its 

 kernel is clofely fliut up within an exceeding hard ftone. 

 It is fmaller than the common nut ; and its figure refem- 

 bles the nutmeg. Its ftone is fmooth, and its kernel lefs, 

 and not fo well tafled as the com.mon one. This (f ) 

 tranfported from Europe, has multiplied and become as 

 common as in Europe itfelf. 



The Tlalcacahuatl^ or Cacahuate as the Spaniards call 

 it, is one of the moft fcarce plants which grow there. It 

 is an herb, but very thick, and flrongly fupplied with 

 roots. Its leaves are fomething like purilain, but not fo 

 grofs. Its flowerets are white, which bring no fruit. 

 Its fruit are not borne on the branches or Hem as in other 

 plants, but attached to the jun^lion of the roots, within 

 a white, greyifli, long, roundifli, wrinkled flieath, and 

 as rough as we have reprefented it in our third figure of 

 fruits and flowers. Every flieath has two or three Ca- 

 cahuati, which are in figure like pine-feeds, but larger 



and 



if) We only fpeak of the imprifoned nut of the Mexican empire, as 

 the one of New Mexico is larger and better tailed than the common one of 

 Europe, as I have been informed from refpe(5l:able authority. Probably this of 

 New Mexico is the fame with that of Louifiana, called Facana^ or Pacaria. 



