OTHER NUTS OF COMMERCE.
Hazelnuts are small and hard-shelled but delicious nuts, that grow on small bushes in the American woods, and come to market locally and in very small quantities. The clearing away of forests has exterminated them in many regions, and thereby we lose a charming shrub.
The filbert, or cob nut, is the large hazelnut of Europe. It is imported in considerable quantities but is not grown here for market.
Brazil nuts are grown on large trees in the for ests of South America. They are rich in oil which is extracted for the use of watchmakers and artists. The port of Para ships most of the nuts to other countries, where they are eaten with relish by those who do not object to the oily, white meats. Para-nuts and "nigger-toes" are names commonly in use. Several triangular nuts grow in a solid woody case as big as a man's head.
Pistachio-nuts are the seeds of a sumach tree, native to Asia Minor. The pale green kernels are enclosed in a thin, two-parted shell, which is easily opened when the nuts are dried. They are oily and have an agreeable flavor. Quantities
of the nuts are consumed by the people of India. Americans use them in confectionery and for flavoring and coloring ice creams and other fancy desserts. They are also used as salted nuts.
A related sumach yields the lacquer of Japanese boxes, an unexcelled varnish, shiny and black, made from the sap of the trees. The leaves of another yield tanning material, used in making the finest of leathers. Wax is another useful product of the sap of certain sumach species.
Cashew-nuts are queer, kidney-shaped, or U shaped nuts, in hard shells, each borne as a small appendage below the fleshy-colored stalk, that might be mistaken for the fruit. The trees which are large, and look like walnuts, are chiefly West Indian and tropical American species. The nuts are exported to other tropical countries, and are coming to be used now in the United States, where they are roasted in oil and salted like almonds.
Cocoanuts are described under Palms.