Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Bladder-nut-tree

BLADDER-NUT-TREE, or the Staphylea, L. is a plant containing two species, the pinnata, indigenous in Britain, and the trifolia, or three-leaved bladder-nut, a native of Virginia. For the first, to which we shall confine our account, see Withering, 317. The flowers are white, and grow on long pendulous foot-stalks; the plant blows in June, and may be found in hedges near Pontefract, and in Kent.

This shrub affords an oil which might be employed for lamps, but the trouble of expressing it is too great. The wood is hard, and used on the Continent for various domestic purposes; and the flowers are much frequented by bees.