The Nut Culturist: A Treatise on Propogation, Planting, and Cultivation of Nut Bearing Trees and Shrubs Adapted to the Climate of the United StatesFuller, Andrew S. (Andrew Samuel)
Science
The Nut Culturist: A Treatise on Propogation, Planting, and Cultivation of Nut Bearing Trees and Shrubs Adapted to the Climate of the United States
Fuller, Andrew S. (Andrew Samuel)
Nuts
GROUNDNUT.--The tubers of one of the most widely distributed
climbing plants of the Eastern States, and common in low, wet
grounds almost everywhere, from Canada to Florida, and westward to
the Mississippi. This plant is described in most of the botanical
works of the present day under the name of _Apios tuberosa_, and it
belongs to the Pulse family (_Leguminosæ_), and is closely related
to the common and well-known wistarias, although much smaller and of
a more slender habit. It is a smooth, perennial, twining vine, with
pinnate leaves, and dense racemes or clusters of small
brownish-purple pea-shaped flowers. The subterranean rootstocks bear
long strings of edible tubers, from one to two inches long, and from
an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, somewhat variable in
shape, dark brown on the outside, but white within. When boiled or
roasted these tubers have a rich, farinaceous, nutty flavor. This
tuber or groundnut is the one described by Mr. Thomas Herriot, the
historiographer of Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition to Virginia in
1585, under the Indian name of "Openawk." He says: "These roots are
round, some as large as walnuts, others much larger; they grow in
damp soil, many hanging together, as fixed on ropes; they are good
food, either boiled or roasted." These tubers are to be found in the
swamps and damp soils of Virginia at this day, just as they were at
the time of Herriot's visit, but many modern historians have tried
to make out that Raleigh's colonists found our common potato among
the Indians at that time, although I have never been able to find a
scrap of trustworthy history to support such a claim, or that
Raleigh himself ever planted or cultivated the American potato in
Ireland or England, or, in fact, ever tasted one of these tubers.
GROUNDNUT.--See Peanut or Goober.
HAZELNUT, OR CHILE HAZEL.--This is merely a local English name for
the fruit of a small evergreen tree, native of Chile, S. A., where
it is known as Guevina, and this has been adopted as the name of the
genus, adding the specific name of the European hazel, so we have
_Guevina Avellana_, although in some botanical works it may be found
under the name of _Qudria heterophylla_. It belongs to the Protea
family (_Proteaceæ_). It has white, hermaphrodite flowers, in long
axillary racemes; these are succeeded by coral-red fruit about the
size of a large cherry; the stone or nut-like seeds being edible are
largely used by the Chileans. They are said to taste like the hazel,
hence the name. Trees are hardy in the southwest of England, and
would probably succeed here in the Southern States. It has been
planted and found to thrive in California. Readily propagated from
seed or green cuttings under glass.
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