| 释义 |
ˈnickar
Also nicker.
[Of obscure origin: by early writers identified with nicker, a marble, but perh. really a native name.]
a. One of the hard round seeds of the Bonduc or nickar-tree.
b. One or other of the species of Bonduc. (See quots.)
1696Sloane in Phil. Trans. XIX. 299 The Third kind of Bean..was that kind which in Jamaica is called Ash⁓coloured-Nickar from its being perfectly round and very like a Nickar, such as Boys use to play withal. 1750G. Hughes Barbados 195 The Horse-Nicker is a small groveling tree, growing chiefly in a loose, marly, or sandy soil. 1756P. Browne Jamaica (1789) 228 The Grey Nickar... The seeds are of a gray colour, and commonly used instead of marbles by all the boys. Ibid., The Yellow Nickar. The plant resembles the foregoing [the Grey Nickar] but it is not prickly. 1792Maria R[iddell] Voy. Madeira, The guilandina moringa or yellow nickar bears a berry like polished marble. 1866Treas. Bot. 556/1 The seeds..are called Nicker nuts or Bonduc nuts.
c. In comb. nickar-tree = bonduc.
1707Sloane Jamaica (1725) II. 40 Nicker Tree. It grows among shrubs in the Savannas everywhere. 1750G. Hughes Barbados 118 The Black Nicker-Tree. This grows to be a large tree covered with a bark of a greyish white. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 320 Nickar-tree, Guilandina. 1787tr. Linnæus' Fam. Plants I. 282 Guilandina. Nickar⁓tree. 1838Econ. Veget. 79 Some nuts and seeds are exquisitely polished, and of the most beautiful enamel, as those of..the bonduc, or nicker-tree. 1847Hamilton in Pharmac. Jrnl. VII. 225 On the medicinal and economic properties of the Sapindus Saponaria. Soap Berry, or Black Nickar Tree. 1849Balfour Man. Bot. §851 The bark of Guilandina Bonduc, the Nicker-tree, is bitter, tonic, and its seeds are said to be emetic. |