EARTH NUT, OR EARTH CHESTNUT, ETC.--A small, low-growing, herbaceous plant of the carrot family (_Umbelliferæ_), common in waste or uncultivated grounds in Great Britain and other countries of northern Europe. Formerly botanists supposed there were two species, but of late only one, the _Bunium bulbocastanum_. On the roots there are small, nut-like tubers, of a sweetish taste, and they are eaten by children, either in the raw state or after being roasted. These tubers have various local names, and in addition to the above, they are called kipper nuts, and pig nuts in England, but a familiar local name in Scotland is lousy nuts, because it is said that eating them is sure to breed lice. But this story may have been invented by parents to deter their children from digging and eating the roots of wild plants. Willdenow, in naming this species, certainly recognized its edible qualities, and that children were fond of it, else he would not have called it an earth chestnut,--_bulbo_, bulb, and _castanum_ from _castanea_, the chestnut. ELK NUT.--See Oil nut. FISTICKE NUT.--See Pistacia nut. FOX NUT.--The seeds of a floating, annual aquatic plant, the _Euryale ferox_, native of India, and belonging to the water lily family (_Nymphæaceæ_). It is a handsome plant, with leaves about two feet in diameter, of a rich purple on the underside, with thorn-like spines on the veins. Flowers deep violet-red. The seeds of this species are eaten by the natives, the same as the aborigines of this country gathered the seeds of our indigenous _Nelumbium luteum_, under the name of water chinquapin, using them for food in the late fall and winter.