MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF THE CASHEW-NUT TREE. 135 
That these are mere varieties appears from the statement 
of Mr. A. Robinson, of Jamaica, who informs us, that the 
nuts of the red variety, when planted, will produce trees 
bearing yellow fruit ; and those from the yellow variety, 
trees bearing red fruit. 
The fruit, termed by the English planters the cashew 
apple or cherry, is merely an enlarged succulent peduncle, 
or receptacle, of a pear shape, and bearing at its extremity 
a reniform nut, adhering to it by the centre of its convex 
surface. The former is the apple, the latter the cashew- 
nut, a luxury not unknown at our own tables. The kernel 
of this nut is enclosed in a hard shell, covered by a thinner 
membraneous envelope ; f and between these resides a thick 
blackish oil, of such causticity as to blister the lips of those 
who incautiously suffer it to approach them ; on this ac- 
count these nuts are never eaten till after they have been 
well roasted to dissipate the oil. After this they may be 
taken with impunity, and ground up with cocoa, as Lunan 
states (Hort. Jam. i. p. 159,) they make an excellent choco- 
late. Whether Lunan here means the nut of the Cocos 
nucifera, or of the Theobroma cacao, also called cocoa, in 
vulgar parlance, does not clearly appear. 
The caustic oil, of which mention has been made, is use- 
ful as an external application, for the removal of freckles 
and corns, and the cure of malignant ulcers, when diluted 
with a sufficient proportion of some bland oil ; smeared on 
wood it preserves it from decay, and from the depredations 
of insects. 
The succulent peduncle, which is about the size of a 
large fig, is an agreeable subastringent fruit, of considera- 
ble efficacy as a tonic and diuretic ; and Dr. Barham in- 
forms us, " that poor dropsical slaves that have had the 
liberty to go into a cashew-nut walk and eat what cashews 
they pleased, have recovered." He also states, that " hav- 
ing a large orchard of about three hundred trees, after the 
market was glutted with them, he distilled a spirit from 
