they will
keep for some time, they constitute, when the gathering season has
been favorable, a great part of their diet.

The seeds of the cones of the nut pine (_Pinus monophyllus_), a new
species described by Dr. Torrey, and alluded to by Col. Fremont in his
exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains, are largely used by the
North American Indians. The nut is oily, of a most agreeable flavor,
and must be very nutritious as it constitutes the principal
subsistence of many of the native tribes.

The cone of another magnificent pine (_Auracaria Bidwillii_),
indigenous to the Eastern coast of Australia, about the Moreton Bay
district, is frequently met with twelve inches in diameter, and
containing 150 edible seeds as large as a walnut. The aborigines
roast these seeds, crack the husk between two stones, and eat them
hot. They taste something like a yam or hard dry potato. The trees
bear cones only once in four years, during a period of six months.
This season is held as a great festival by the aborigines of that
locality, called by them Bunga Bunga, and they congregate in greater
numbers than is known in any other part of Australia, frequently
coming from a distance of 300 miles. They grow sleek and fat upon this
diet. An Act has been passed by the legislature of the colony,
prohibiting, under heavy pains and penalties, the demolition of those
trees, being the natural food of the natives.

The common people eat the seeds of the red sandal wood (_Adenanthera
Pavonina_) in the South of India. The pulp of the fruit of the
_Adansonia digitata_, or monkey bread, is also used as an article of
food.

SINGHARA OR WATER NUTS.--The large seeds of _Trapa bicornis_, a native
of China, and of _T. bispinosa_ and _natans_, species indigenous to
India, are sweet and eatable, and the aquatic plants which furnish
them are hence an extensive article of cultivation. In Cashmere and
other parts of the East they are common food, and known under the name
of Singhara nuts. In Cashmere the government obtains from these nuts
L12,000 of annual revenue. Mr. Moorcroft mentions that Runjeet Sing
derived nearly the same sum. From 96,000 to 128,000 loads of this nut
are yielded annually by the lake of Ooller alone. The nut abounds in
fecula. In China the kernel is used as an article of food, being
roasted or boiled like the potato. The seeds of various species of
_Nelumbium_, natives of the East Indies, Jamaica, and the United
States, also form