Nuts and Other
Oil-Rich Seeds
From the first, the English word nut meant an
edible seed surrounded by a hard shell, and
this remains the common meaning. Botanists
later appropriated the word to refer
specifically to one-seeded fruits with a tough,
dry fruit layer rather then a fleshy, succulent
one. Under this restricted definition, among
common nuts only acorns, hazelnuts,
beechnuts, and chestnuts qualify as true nuts.
The details of anatomy aside, the various
seeds that we call nuts differ from grains and
legumes in three important ways: they’re