Clove Nutmeg, or Madagascar nutmeg of commerce, is the fruit of Agathophyllum aromaticum, a small evergreen tree, indigenous to Madagascar.
Brazilian Nutmegs are the highly aromatic seeds of Cryptocarya moschata, or Atherosperma moschata of some botanists. It is a lofty tree, native of Brazil. The aromatic nuts are used as a substitute for nutmegs, but are very inferior to the genuine.
[Peruvian Nutmeg], or Plum Nutmeg.—The seeds of a large evergreen tree with aromatic foliage, like our common sassafras, and for this reason is sometimes called Chilean or Peruvian sassafras. The seeds are of no more economic value than those of our native sassafras. It is known under various botanical names, but Laurelia sempervirens is, perhaps, the most familiar.
California Nutmeg, or Stinking Nutmeg, is the nut-like seed of Torreya Californica, a small tree of the yew family (Taxaceæ). The fruit is from an inch to an inch and a half long, with a fleshy rind enclosing a hard, long nut, which is slightly grooved like a nutmeg. The fruit, leaves and wood are strongly scented, hence the name of "stinking nutmeg," or "stinking yew." Another species, the T. taxifolia, is a native of Florida.
[Oil nut.]—The fruit of a low-branching, deciduous native shrub, growing three to ten feet high, with alternate leaves and small greenish flowers in terminal spikes. It is the Pyrularia oleifera of Gray, and Hamiltonia oleifera of Muhlenberg. The fruit is in the form of a pear-shaped drupe, about an inch long, the small seed or nut with an oily kernel of strong acrid taste; of no value. This shrub is found on shady banks in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and southward into Georgia.
Paradise nut.—See [Sapucaia nut].
[Peanut], groundnut, goober.—The well-known fruit of Arachis hypogæa, a low-growing annual belonging to the pulse or pea family (Leguminosæ), supposed to be a native of South America, but now extensively cultivated in nearly all semi-tropical countries and wherever the summers are long enough to insure the ripening of the seeds. Extensively cultivated in Virginia, south and westward. Too well known to require any further comment or notice here.
Pecan nut.—See [Chap. VII].
Pekea nut.—See [Souari nut].
Peruvian nut.—See [Nutmegs].