432 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1972

Apply insecticides properly. When using sprays Apply either Nemagon or Sarolex at the rate it is important to apply the insecticide in a large recommended on the label. For Nemagon apply amount of water in order to soak the thick mats to moist soil with 150-200 gallons of water, of St. Augustinegrass. drenching 1,000 square feet of turf. For Sarolex Jar attachments to garden hoses are excellent apply to moist soil with 30-50 gallons of water tools for home gardeners to apply sprays. Use the drenching 1,000 square feet of turf. Immediately type which required 15 to 20 gallons of water after applying either material, water the lawn passing through the hose to empty the quart jar. thoroughly with one inch of additional water. Some of these materials are on the market in dry, The easiest and most economical method of granulated form for direct application with ferti controlling weeds is the judicial use of all sound lizer-spreader machines. practices of turf grass management. Diseases of turfgrass are common in South The safest way for homeowners to control Florida (3). In general, the presence of a disease weeds in a St. Augustine lawn is to use a weed is indicated when either the grass continues to and feed combination. This herbicide-fertilizer decline or the condition spreads to new areas. combination will in time control both broad-leaf Control of a disease is usually accomplished by the and grass-type weeds. A practical approach, and use of a fungicide. in the long run probably cheaper, would call for Observe the following points when spraying: reviewing the problem which caused unfavorable Spray the entire planting and not just the diseased turf conditions. Correcting the cause of trouble spot. The directions and precautions on the fungi may prevent further weed problems whereas at cide container should be followed carefully. Com tacking only the weeds usually results in a con plete and even distribution to the entire area is tinually expensive and superficial habit of chemical essential. A small amount of a wetting agent "squirting." should be used. Use enough water to wet the In summary, superior lawns can be achieved by grass thoroughly. (Ten gallons per 1,000 square anyone who carries out a sensible maintenance feet is usually sufficient.) An application every program with emphasis on mowing, watering and 10 to 14 days may be necessary to keep the fertilizing. Serious troubles can be avoided if we disease under control. Do not mow the grass im inspect often, identify problems correctly and act mediately after applying a fungicide. promptly. Certain nematodes are severe pests of turf grass. Symptoms of damage are varying de LiteratureCited grees of chlorosis, die back of young foliage, 1. Brogdon, J. E., Kerr, S. H., Short, D. E., Home tendency to wilt during periods of high tempera Gardener's Lawn Insect Control Guide, 1972. Fla. Coop. Ext. Ser., Univ. of Fla. IFAS, Circular 213E. ture and low moisture. Grass cover becomes thin 2. Burt, E. O., 1966, Weeds and Their Control, Extension Office, Dade County M-Bul 66-6 5. and growth is poor. Severely affected areas may 3. Freeman, T. E., Mullin, R. S., Turfgrass Diseases and become bare and in turn infested by annual grasses Their Control, 1968, Agricultural Extension Service, IFAS Univ. ofFla. Circ. 221-C. and weeds. 4. Schlaack, N. F., Griffes, Art, Johnson, Charles, Burt, E. O. Daigle, L. J., 1966. Verti-Thinning, Ext. Office Dade At the present time only two materials are County M-Bul. 66-73. registered for nematode control on home lawns. 5. Wilson, Frank L. 1961. St. Augustine Lawn Grasses Univ. of Fla. Agri. Ext. Ser. Circ. 217.

WHEN IS A NOT A NUT?

Edwin A. Menninger which must have edible interiors or they

The Flowering Tree Man would not be greedily grabbed by squirrels and Stuart other wild creatures. Those humans who have ex plored the possibilities in this direction, perhaps Defining the word "nut" is impossible if every as an item on a starvation diet, report that the one is to be pleased, but for purposes of this dis kernels of many acorns are "tasty" or even "good cussion it might be suggested that a nut is a nibbling," but their enjoyment has failed to hard-shelled fruit of which the contents are eaten arouse any enthusiasm, and for the purposes of by mankind. This excludes the 450 kinds of today's definition, acorns are definitely out. MENNINGER: WHAT IS A NUT? 433

This author's definition of a nut gets into all this operation are swallowed, the betel nut is kinds of difficulties. It must be stretched radically really a nut. in the case of the and the , because Commercially most important of all nuts are the almond is the kernel of a hard-shelled seed the and the . Everybody agrees (not fruit) which is found inside a peach-like, that the coconut is a nut, but scientists object to soft fruit; the cashew is the kernel of a hard- the inclusion of the peanut in the nut category, shelled seed that hangs outside the soft fruit. But insisting that it is just a tuber like a potato, not these are rather extreme exceptions. a nut. However it gets included in today's defini Likewise many other hard-shelled fruits that tion. Both these nuts are important as food items in our carelessness of language we call "nuts," in all parts of the world. In southwest Africa are never eaten by humans although treasured where meat is scarce and expensive, the family by wild animals. A familiar example is the "buf cook enriches the supply of proteins by throwing falo nut/' This is the fruit of a small shrub of a handful of into whatever is simmering eastern United States known botanically as Sta- on the fire, getting ready for dinner. The peanut phylea trifolia which Bailey's Manual of Culti is as important there as it is in the peanut butter vated calls the American bladdernut. The sandwiches in the American school child's lunch same books helps to complicate matters by de box. Similarly the coconut gets worldwide accep scribing the "buffalo berry" Shepherdia argentea, tance in a thousand products from cosmetics to a thorny shrub native from Manitoba to Kansas, kitchen cakes. explaining that the "fruit is -like, the nut The commercial importance of the coconut sug [sic.] enclosed by the fleshy receptacle." Obviously gests that there should be a lot more palm trees the edible part is the fleshy area of the berry, and producing hard-shelled fruits with usable in the "nut" is not a nut by today's definition but teriors, just waiting for somebody to discover them. merely a seed. Please excuse a pun here: the Unfortunately among the thousands of different botanical name given to a species is always fol kinds of palms, relatively few produce nuts— lowed by the abbreviated form of the name of the hard-shelled pods containing interior materials botanist who first described it, and the correct that are palatable to human beings. There are name of this is always written Shepherdia however one or two notable exceptions to be dis argentea Nutt. cussed here, although they are not known to Nobody would ever think of eating a horse- offer commercial possibilities for the future. (Aesculus sp.) in spite of the name we Most nuts as defined here consist of two parts: carelessly give it. The lychee nut (Litchi chinensis) is another example of a hardshelled fruit that is not a nut by today's definition; we eat the fruit inside the semihard exterior shell, but we do not eat the kernel.

Today's definition of a nut gets into other kinds of trouble. For example, there are thousands of plants in the bean family which bear fruits that have hard-shelled exteriors which we break to obtain the beans inside which we eat. These may be herbs or small shrubs, but again they may be big trees like Bauhinia esculenta in tropi cal Africa whose hard pods are harvested for the delicious beans inside. Obviously it would be silly to call these fruits "nuts" just because the kernels are eaten. Another route to difficulties is a study of the betel nut, the fruit of the Asiatic palm Areca catechu. The fibrous (hard) exterior (shell) is removed and the contents mixed with lime and

popped into the mouth and chewed. The dictionary —Photo by Julia Morton calls it a masticatory. If the salivary proceeds of The cashew tidbit is contained in a hardshelled nut that protrudes beyond the apex of the soft fruit. 434 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1972 the outside hard shell and the contents which we nuts are extremely poisonous until roasted to drive eat. But all are not like this. For example the off cyanic poisons. Maybe some of these Austral (Bertholettia excelsa) as it reaches ian subjects ought to get more extensive consider us in the United States, consists of just those two ation today. parts. But on the tree in Brazil hangs a pod as The nuts eaten by people in the Philippines are big as a grapefruit, with a very hard shell. When not the nuts you and I know. The nuts eaten in ripe this pod falls to the ground from the enor India, Africa, many other places, are nuts you mous tree that bears it, and is quickly picked and I never heard of. Some of them might prove up by the Brazillians who do not eat the nuts; it to be in great demand if more of the world knew is more profitable to sell them to North Americans. about them and had an opportunity to taste and Packed closely together inside that pod are a lot use them. In islands of the Pacific there are Pan- of wedge-shaped, hard-shelled nuts. Their strange danus trees that bear hard-shelled fruits contain shape as we see them in our markets results from ing nutritious kernels. These nuts are eaten by this being packed tight in a hard-shelled pod. hungry people of the areas where they grow, while The Paradise nut (Lecythis sp.) is seldom seen the rest of us think of only as a big in the American markets, though it is as plentiful clump of ornamental striped leaves, particularly in Brazil as the other. The reason is that the near the seashore where salt spray does not bother Paradise nuts which also come packed tight to them. Sometimes we are almost overwhelmed by gether in a big pod like the previous, drop out of the discovery of how much we don't know. that big pod while it still hangs on the parent tree. The round, %-inch diameter, white seeds of When ripe, the pod opens a trap door on the bottom and all the nuts fall to the ground where monkeys pick them up faster than man can. And Paradise nuts are more delicious than Brazil nuts, if you can find any. Perhaps the most delicious nut in the world is the souari nut, also called "butternut of De- marara," which is produced by an 80-foot tree in Guyana, which is known botanically as Caryocar miciferum. Its egg-size fruits are never found in the markets. Hundreds of different kinds of nuts are gath ered, eaten, used in cooking, or utilized in other ways by people in different parts of the world. Per haps a score kinds of nuts are commonly found in American markets, but these do not even begin to be representative of the world of nuts that are utilized by different peoples in different lands. Particularly are nut crops gathered by the poor to supplement their food supply. During the Civil War, thousands of Southerners who were hungry subsisted on acorns as an important part of the diet. Early day settlers in Australia gathered many, many hard-shelled fruits, extracted their kernels and tried eating them. Some proved palatable and nutritious. Some were quickly recog nized as containing poisonous elements and the early day procedure was to put these nuts in meshl)ags and sink them in a flowing stream. Two months later they were taken out, dried and eaten; many proved delectable after this treat ment. Another purifying procedure was to roast the nuts; this helped a lot and made many of them —Wolfe photo delicious. Few persons today realize that cashew The Seychelles Palm Nut (Lodoicea maldavici) MENNINGER: WHAT IS A NUT? 435 the talipot palm in Ceylon (Coryplia umbraculi- the trees did extend above the water, a griffin fera) are nearly as hard as ivory and are exten lived in them and devoured any humans that sively employed in the manufacture of beads. How chanced by. (When not so occupied, the griffin ever in Ceylon they are known as bayurbatum flew to the nearest land and ate elephants.) nuts, which fools nobody. The nut was highly prized. Superstition All this discussion of nuts and what is con credited it with being a precious talisman, a tained inside that hard-shell has a special appli universal panacea for all ailments, an antidote cation to the biggest nut in the world. The so- for all poisons, a protection against enemies, called Double Coconut is the fruit of a big palm and a powerful aphrodisiac. Hooker says tree (Lodoicea maldavici) that grows in the Sey some kings were so greedy for the nuts that chelles Island in the Indian Ocean, between they offered to give a loaded ship in exchange Madagascar and India. Menninger: for only one. Common folk were forbidden to Fantastic Trees says: possess one. Rudolf I of Hapsburg offered four If you were to stand under a Seychelles thousand gold florins for a single nut. palm nut tree just as one of the nuts is about All this nonsense blew up when the palms to drop, you would be lucky to escape. The were discovered on Preslin (one of the Sey solid fruits weigh anywhere from 30 to 40 chelles) in 1742, and an enterprising merchant pounds, and there are as many as 70 such dumped a whole boatload of the nuts on the blockbusters clustered on a single tree. Each market in India. The price collapsed. Today one measures about SV2 feet around, and they the nuts can be purchased in Singapore, Bom take six years to ripen. The result is the big bay, Karachi, and other ports. gest seed in the plant world. Seychelles palms do not bear till they are Some persons make the mistake of calling one hundred years old or more. No one knows this the double coconut, but it is not a coconut. how old the biggest palms on Praslin are, or It grows on a fan-leaf palm with sexes on what age they finally reach. different trees; the coconut grows on a feather- Whether the big fruit of the Seychelles palm leaf palm with both sexes on the same tree. is a nut hinges on whether the contents are eaten The outer husk of the Seychelles nut is smooth, by people, although 40 pounds of nut meat in one brown, and less than 1 inch thick, and it splits mass sounds a bit overwhelming. To get the off; the thick greenish-yellow shell beneath is answers to the question, this author wrote the not double but lobed. The fruit is usually two- Department of Agriculture in those far-away lobed, sometimes three-lobed, and very rarely islands and received this reply from Guy Lionnet, six-lobed. the Minister of Agriculture: When the fruit is ten to twelve months old May I refer you to a paper by me entitled it has reached its maximum size and at this 'The Vallee de Mai and the Coco-de-mer Palm" stage it is frequently eaten. Its jelly-like in which was published in Principes, the Journal terior "is much appreciated throughout the of the Palm Society, Miami, Florida, in 1966, 9 Seychelles. It is colorless, practically tasteless, (4): 134-138. save sometimes for a slight nutty flavor . . . Further I should like to point out that the From this stage onwards, the soft jelly-like coco-de-mer kernel is only edible when the endosperm gradually sets to a very hard nut is about a year old. The kernel is then tissue resembling ivory." jelly-like, and translucent, with a sweetish For centuries this nut, sometimes called taste, and is considered a dessert delicacy. This coco-de-mer, was a mystery. Because it is jelly must be eaten still fresh as it does not heavier than water, it sinks; but when the husk keep. It can however be kept for several days has been shed and the interior has rotted, it if refrigerated. will float. Sailors of long ago picked them up on Coco-de-mer cannot be said to be plentiful the shores of the Indian Ocean, but medieval since only some 2000 nuts are produced annu sages could not say whether they were animal, ally, out of which about 200 are eaten green. vegetable, or mineral. Tales persisted that they The rest is utilized in the curios industry. came from the Maldive Islands, three hundred This answers the question, and the Seychelles miles south of Ceylon; or that the trees grew palm fruit is a nut when it is a year old, but it in submerged gardens near Java but disap ceases to be a nut when it is ripe five years later. peared when sailors dived for them; that when Further inquiry produced this letter from R. E. 436 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1972

Vaughn, Curator of the Mauritius Herbarium of nuts in their immature stages and their kernels the Sugar Research Institute in Reduit, Mauritius, are eaten by people, although when ripe they have another island in the Indian Ocean: lost their attraction as food and are no longer With regard to the Coco-de-mer of the nuts. For example, in the Philippines the Depart Seychelles, an excellent monograph of this ment of Agriculture at Manila reports that the plant was published in La Revue Agricole de soft kernels of immature fruits of the following File Maurice, Vol. 26 (1947). About the edi five palms are boiled with sugar and made into bility of the fruit the author has this to say: desserts: Corypha elata (common name Buri) one ". . . a fruit which is 10-12 months old has of 8 species in southeast Asia on all of which the attained its maximum size and at this stage is huge flower cluster at the top terminates the life frequently eaten. This jelly-like tissue is much of the plant, sometimes after 100 years; Arenga appreciated throughout the Seychelles. It is pinnata (common name Kaong) one of 11 species odourless, practically tasteless, save sometimes in Indomalasia; Livistona rotundifolia (common for a slight nutty flavour, generally colourless name Anahau) and L. saribas (common name except for fruits collected from one palm in the Tarau) among 30 species in Indomalasia, and Anse Marie Louise reserve which produces a Nypa fruticans (common name Sasa) a monotypic pink jelly. From this stage onwards, the fibrous characteristic plant of swampy, muddy places in mesocarp becomes thin and dry, the soft brown brackish or salt water from Asia to Australia. endocarp becomes hard, horny and black, These are nuts in just one part of the world; all whilst the soft jelly-like endosperm gradually told there are 2500 kinds of palms in 217 genera. sets to a very hard tissue resembling ivory." Who knows how many of them are attractive to Many other palm trees bear fruits that are hungry people?

EXOTIC EVERGREEN MAGNOLIAS IN FLORIDA

Robert L. Egolf species of Magnolia had been described from Cuba since 1899, two others from Puerto Rico, and four B rooks ville from Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In this hemisphere our native Magnolia grandiflora is a For years, horticulturists have considered the northern outlier of a group of evergreen Magnolias Magnolias to be a group of evergreen and decidu numbering at least nineteen species that grow not ous trees and large shrubs found in the wild in only on the largest islands of the Caribbean but the temperate regions of Asia and North America. also occur from Mexico southward through Central This concept is sound only if it excludes those America and debouch onto the South American Magnolias not yet introduced into gardens. Of the continent in Venezuela. Of this entire group two eighty species, more or less, of Magnolias accepted species only, or three if Magnolia grandiflora is at present as valid, considerably more than half included, have been brought into cultivation. occur within the tropics. Thus, it is not sur In Asia two other groups of evergreen Mag prising that an erroneous view of the Magnolias nolias, numbering between them more than twenty should have developed. Until near the end of the species, grow from the region once called Indo- nineteenth century only a few Magnolias had been China down through the Malaysian peninsula and collected from the tropics, and these so poorly onto the Indonesian islands of Java, Sumatra and known as to raise doubts as to whether they might Borneo.1 Of these also only two are in cultivation, not in fact belong to the more tropical Magnoliac- one of them, Magnolia Delavayi, like Magnolia eous genera, Michelia, Manglietia or Taiauma. It

is a little more surprising that the idea of Mag lThe genus Magnolia has been divided by Mr. J. E. nolias as essentially extra-tropical should have Dandy of the British Museum into eleven sections. Of these, seven are wholly Asiatic, two wholly American and two persisted so long. As late as 1946 it was possible mixed. Five of the sections are evergreen and six deciduous. The tropical American Magnolias, with a single exception, for Menninger and Sturrock (2) to write in "Shade and M. grandiflora belong to section Theorhodon, a wholly and Ornamental Trees for South Florida and American, evergreen section. M. coco and M. Delavayi are in section Gwillimia, a wholly Asiatic, evergreen section. The Cuba" that ". . . true Magnolias are not satis other tropical Asiatic, evergreen section, Maingola, which contains species with the southern-most Asiatic distribution factory in southern Florida or Cuba." Yet one has no members in cultivation.