The pignons or edible seeds of Pinus Pinea are consumed occasionally in Italy.  In Chili the cone or fruit of the pehuen, or pino de la tierra, are considered a great delicacy.  The pinones are sometimes boiled, and afterwards, by grinding them on a stone, converted into a kind of paste, from which very delicate pastry is made.  The pine is cultivated in different parts of this province on account of its valuable wood and the pinones.  The seeds from the cones of the Auracanean pine, collected in autumn, furnish the Pawenches (from pawen pine) and Auracanians with a very nutritious food.  When cooked, the flavor is not unlike that of the chesnut, and as 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