5. The filbert is the fruit of the _Corylus avellana_ or hazel. The kernel has a mild, farinaceous, oily taste, agreeable to the palate. In England filberts are usually large hazel nuts. The American hazel nuts are of two other species. 6. The chestnut (_Castanea vesca_) is eaten raw, boiled, or roasted, or is ground into meal and puddings, cakes, and bread are made from it. The tree is common to Europe and America. 7. The pecan (_Carya olivalformis_), sometimes called the Illinois nut, a species of hickory nut. The shell is thin and the meat well flavored. The tree grows in North America, chiefly in the Mississippi valley, and in Texas, where it is one of the largest of forest trees. 8. The almond (_Amygdalus_) grows on a tree about twenty or thirty feet high, a native of the East and of Africa, but has now become completely wild in the whole south of Europe. It is planted for the sake of its beautiful flowers, which resemble those of the peach in form and color. The wood of the tree is hard and of a reddish color, and is used by cabinet-makers. But it is chiefly valued on account of the kernel of its fruit, well known by the name of almonds, an important article of commerce. It is mentioned in the Old Testament, and appears to have been cultivated from a very early period. It was introduced into Britain as a fruit-tree before the middle of the sixteenth century, but it is only in the most favored situations in the south of England that it ever produces good fruit. It is successfully cultivated in southern California. Almonds are either sweet or bitter. The bitter appear to be the original kind, and the sweet to be an accidental variety, perpetuated and improved by cultivation. [Illustration: Life-size. COPYRIGHT 1899, NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO. Almond. Chestnut. Brazil nut. Filbert. Peanut. Pecan. Hickory nut. English walnut.] THE BIRTH OF ATHENA. BY EMILY C. THOMPSON. It is a study, interesting to some of our modern scholars, to fathom the depths of obscurity and bring up from the hidden past, from the minds of men long departed, their conceptions of the beings whom they worshiped. Still more interesting is it to surmise and conjecture the origin of these marvelous beings. Charming books have been written upon these subjects and they prove fascinating to the reader who, with vivid imagination, can follow the theories of each author and the long fantastic proofs. The gods of the Greeks, those anthropomorphic beings, throbbing with life, radiant with beauty, the ideal of all that is fair and lovely, and yet the prey of human passions and desires, are a never-ending source of delight to classical students.