Cashew

ka-shoo', a small, spreading, tropical tree. It is native to the West Indies. The cashew is an excellent example of a tropical plant put to many uses of which people in a north temperate climate have little knowledge, and in which they cannot be expected to take a special interest. The cashew nut is a kidneyshaped bean an inch in length. It has a pleasant, oily taste, and is used as an article of food, either raw or roasted. A sweet oil, pressed from the kernels, is used like olive oil for cooking. The fruit stalk, corresponding to the stem of a cherry, is swollen and fleshy like a pear in shape, and is eaten as a cashew apple. A kind of wine is made from its juice. The roasted nuts are used to flavor cocoa in the manufacture of chocolate. The acrid vapor which escapes in roasting is likely to cause erysipelas. A gum similar to gum arabic exudes from the bark of the tree.