or CASHEW-NUT TREE: A genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the decandra class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 12th order, Holaraceae. The characters are: The calyx is divided into five parts, the divisions ovate and deciduous: The corolla consists of five reflected petals, twice the length of the calyx: The filaments consist of ten capillary filaments shorter than the calyx, one of them castrated; the antheræ are small and... and roundish: The pistillum has a roundish germen; the stylus is tubulated, inflected, and the length of the corolla; the stigma oblique: There is no pericarpium; the receptaculum is very large and fleshy: The seed is a large kidney-shaped nut, placed above the receptaculum.

Of this only one species is as yet known to the botanists, viz. the occidentale. It grows naturally in the West Indies, and arrives at the height of 20 feet in those places of which it is a native, but cannot be preserved in Britain without the greatest difficulty. The fruit of this tree is as large as an orange; and is full of an acid juice, which is frequently made use of in making punch. To the apex of this fruit grows a nut, of the size and shape of a hare's kidney, but much larger at the end which is next the fruit than at the other. The shell is very hard; and the kernel, which is sweet and pleasant, is covered with a thin film. Between this and the shell is lodged a thick, blackish, inflammable liquor, of such a caustic nature in the fresh nuts, that if the lips chance to touch it, blisters will immediately follow. The kernels are eaten raw, roasted, or pickled. The caustic liquor just mentioned is esteemed an excellent cosmetic with the West India young ladies, but they must certainly suffer a great deal of pain in its application; and as fond as our British females are of a beautiful face, it is highly probable they would never submit to be flayed alive to obtain one. When any of the former fancy themselves too much tanned by the scorching rays of the sun, they gently scrape off the thin outside of the stone, and then rub their faces all over with the stone. Their faces immediately fweel and grow black; and the skin being poisoned by the caustic oil above mentioned, will, in the space of five or six days, come entirely off in large flakes, so that they cannot appear in public in less than a fortnight; by which time the new skin looks as fair as that of a new-born child. The negroes in Brazil cure themselves effectually of disorders in the stomach by eating of the yellow fruit of this tree; the juice of which, being acid, cuts the thick tough humours which obstructed the free circulation of the blood, and thus removes the complaint. This cure, however, is not voluntary: for their masters, the Portuguese, deny them any other sustenance; and letting them loose to the woods, where the cashew-nuts grow in great abundance, leave it in their option to perish by famine or sustain themselves with this fruit.—The milky juice of this tree will stain linen of a good black, which cannot be washed out. See Plate XVI.

Culture. This plant is easily raised from the nuts, which should be planted each in a separate pot filled with light sandy earth, and plunged into a good hotbed of tanners bark; they must also be kept from moisture till the plants come up, otherwise the nuts are apt to rot. If the nuts are fresh, the plants will come up in about a month; and in two months more, they will be four or five inches high, with large leaves: from which quick progress many people have been deceived, imagining they would continue the like quick growth afterwards; but with all the care that can be taken, they never exceed the height of two feet and an half, and for the most part scarce half as much.

ANACEPHALÆOSIS, in rhetoric, the same with recapitulation. See Recapitulation.