Chapter 2

47. ARTANTHE ELONGATA.--A plant of the pepper family, which furnishes one of the articles known by the Peruvians as Matico, and which is used by them for the same purposes as cubebs; but its chief value is as a styptic, an effect probably produced by its rough under surface, acting mechanically like lint. It has been employed internally to check hemorrhages, but with doubtful effect. Its aromatic bitter stimulant properties are like those of cubebs, and depend on a volatile oil, a dark-green resin, and a peculiar bitter principle called _maticin_.

48. ARTOCARPUS INCISA.--This is the breadfruit tree of the South Sea Islands, where its introduction gave occasion for the historical incidents arising from the mutiny of the "Bounty." The round fruits contain a white pulp, of the consistence of new bread. It is roasted before being eaten, but has little flavor. The tree furnishes a viscid juice containing caoutchouc, which is used as glue for calking canoes. In the South Sea Islands the breadfruit constitutes the principal article of diet; it is prepared by baking in an oven heated by hot stones.

49. ARTOCARPUS INTEGRIFOLIA.--The jack of the Indian Archipelago, cultivated for its fruit, which is a favorite article among the natives, as also are the roasted seeds. The wood is much used, and resembles mahogany. Bird-lime is made from the juice.

50. ASTROCARYUM VULGARE.--Every part of this South American palm is covered with sharp spines. It is cultivated to some extent by the Indians of Brazil for the sake of its young leaves, which furnish a strong fiber for making bowstrings, fishing nets, etc. The finer threads are knitted into hammocks, which are of great strength. It is known as Tucum thread. The pulp of the fruit furnishes an oil. In Guiana it is called the Aoura palm.

51. ATTALEA COHUNE.--This palm furnishes Cahoun nuts, from which is extracted cohune oil, used as a burning oil, for which purpose it is superior to cocoanut oil. Piassaba fiber is furnished by this and _A. funifera_, the seeds of which are known as Coquilla nuts; these nuts are 3 or 4 inches long, oval, of a rich brown color, and very hard; they are much used by turners for making the handles of doors, umbrellas, etc. The fiber derived from the decaying of the cellular matter at the base of the leaf-stalks is much used in Brazil for making ropes. It is largely used in England and other places for making coarse brooms, chiefly used in cleaning streets.

52. AVERRHOA BILIMBI.--This is called the blimbing, and is cultivated to some extent in the East Indies. The fruit is oblong, obtuse-angled, somewhat resembling a short, thick cucumber, with a thin, smooth, green rind, filled with a pleasant, acid juice.

53. AVERRHOA CARAMBOLA.--The caramba of Ceylon and Bengal. The fruit of this tree is about the size of a large orange, and, when ripe, is of a rich yellow color, with a very decided and agreeable fragrance. The pulp contains a large portion of acid, and is generally used as a pickle or preserve. In Java it is used both in the ripe and unripe state in pies; a sirup is also made of the juice, and a conserve of the flowers. These preparations are highly valued as remedies in fevers and bilious disorders.

54. BACTRIS MAJOR.--The Marajah palm, of Brazil, which grows upon the banks of the Amazon River. It has a succulent, rather acid fruit, from which a vinous beverage is prepared. _B. minor_ has a stem about 14 feet high and about an inch in diameter. These stems are used for walking canes, and are sometimes called Tobago canes.

55. BALSAMOCARPON BREVIFOLIUM.--This shrub is the algarrobo of the Chilians. It belongs to the pea family. Its pods are short and thick, and when unripe contain about 80 per cent of tannic acid; the ripe pods become transformed into a cracked resinous substance, when their tanning value is much impaired; this resinous matter is astringent, and is used for dyeing black and for making ink.

56. BALSAMODENDRON MYRRHA.--A native of Arabia Felix, producing a gum resin, sometimes called Opobalsamum, which was considered by the ancients as a panacea for almost all the ills that flesh is heir to. _B. mukul_ yields a resin of this name, and is considered identical with the Bdellium of Dioscorides and of the Scriptures. The resin has cordial and stimulating properties, and is burnt as an incense. In ancient times it was used as an embalming ingredient.

57. BAMBUSA ARUNDINACEA.--The bamboo cane, a gigantic grass, cultivated in many tropical and semitropical countries. The Chinese use it in one way or other for nearly everything they require. Almost every article of furniture in their houses, including mats, screens, chairs, tables, bedsteads, and bedding, is made of bamboo. The masts, sails, and rigging of their ships consist chiefly of bamboo. A fiber has been obtained from the stem suitable for mixing with wool, cotton, and silk; it is said to be very soft and to take dyes easily. They have treatises and volumes on its culture, showing the best soil and the seasons for planting and transplanting this useful production.

58. BAUHINIA VAHLII.--The Maloo-climber of India, where the gigantic shrubby stems often attain a height of 300 feet, running over the tops of the tallest trees, and twisting so tightly around their stems as to kill them. The exceedingly tough fibrous bark of this plant is used in India for making ropes and in the construction of suspension bridges. The seeds form an article of food; they are eaten raw, and resemble cashew nuts in flavor.

59. BEAUCARNEA RECURVIFOLIA.--This Mexican plant is remarkable for the large bulbiform swelling at the base of the stem. It is a plant of much elegance and beauty, resembling a drooping fountain.

60. BERGERA KOENIGII.--The curry-leaf tree of India. The fragrant, aromatic leaves are used to flavor curries. The leaves, root, and bark are used medicinally. The wood is hard and durable, and from the seeds a clear, transparent oil, called Simbolee oil, is extracted.

61. BERRYA AMMONILLA.--This furnishes the Trincomalee wood of the Philippine Islands and Ceylon, and is largely used for making oil casks and for building boats, for which it is well adapted, being light and strong.

62. BERTHOLLETIA EXCELSA.--This furnishes the well known Brazil nuts, or cream nuts of commerce. The tree is a native of South America and attains a height of 100 to 150 feet. The fruit is nearly round and contains from eighteen to twenty-four seeds, which are so beautifully packed in the shell that when once removed it is found impossible to replace them. A bland oil is pressed from the seeds, which is used by artists, and at Para the fibrous bark of the tree is used for calking ships, as a substitute for oakum.

63. BIGNONIA ECHINATA.--A native of Mexico, where it is sometimes called Mariposa butterfly. The branches are said to be used in the adulteration of sarsaparilla. _B. chica_, a native of Venezuela, furnishes a red pigment, obtained by macerating the leaves in water, which is used by the natives for painting their bodies. The long flexible stems of _B. kerere_ furnish the natives of French Guiana with a substitute for ropes. _B. alliacea_ is termed the Garlic shrub, because of the powerful odor of garlic emitted from its leaves and branches when bruised. These plants all have showy flowers, and the genus is represented with us by such beautiful flowers as are produced by _B. radicans_ and _B. capreolata_.

64. BIXA ORELLANA.--Arnotta plant. This plant is a native of South America, but has been introduced and cultivated both in the West and East Indies. It bears bunches of pink-colored flowers, which are followed by oblong bristled pods. The seeds are thinly coated with red, waxy pulp, which is separated by stirring them in water until it is detached, when it is strained off and evaporated to the consistence of putty, when it is made up into rolls; in this condition it is known as flag or roll arnotta, but when thoroughly dried it is made into cakes and sold as cake arnotta. It is much used by the South American Caribs and other tribes of Indians for painting their bodies, paint being almost their only article of clothing. As a commercial article it is mainly used as a coloring for cheese, butter, and inferior chocolates, to all of which it gives the required tinge without imparting any unpleasant flavor or unwholesome quality. It is also used in imparting rich orange and gold-colored tints to various kinds of varnishes.

65. BLIGHIA SAPIDA.--The akee fruit of Guinea. The fruit is about 3 inches long by 2 inches wide; the seeds are surrounded by a spongy substance, which is eaten. It has a subacid, agreeable taste. A small quantity of semisolid fatty oil is obtained from the seeds by pressure.

66. B[OE]HMERIA NIVEA.--A plant of the nettle family, which yields the fiber known as Chinese grass. The beautiful fabric called grasscloth, which rivals the best French cambric in softness and fineness of texture, is manufactured from the fiber of this plant. The fiber is also variously known in commerce as rheea, ramie, and in China as Tchow-ma. It is a plant of the easiest culture, and has been introduced into the Southern States, where it grows freely. When once machinery is perfected so as to enable its being cheaply prepared for the manufacturer, a great demand will arise for this fiber.

67. BOLDOA FRAGRANS.--A Chilian plant which yields small edible fruits; these, as well as all parts of the plant, are very aromatic. The bark is used for tanning, and the wood is highly esteemed for making charcoal. An alkaloid called _boldine_, extracted from the plant, has reputed medicinal value, and a drug called Boldu is similarly produced.

68. BORASSUS FLABELLIFORMIS.--The Palmyra palm. The parts of this tree are applied to such a multitude of purposes that a poem in the Tamil language, although enumerating eight hundred uses, does not exhaust the catalogue. In old trees the wood becomes hard and is very durable. The leaves are from 8 to 10 feet long, and are used for thatching houses, making various mattings, bags, etc. They also supply the Hindoo with paper, upon which he writes with a stylus. A most important product called toddy or palm wine is obtained from the flower spikes, which yield a great quantity of juice for four or five months. Palm-toddy is intoxicating, and when distilled yields strong arrack. Very good vinegar is also obtained from it, and large quantities of jaggery or palm sugar are manufactured from the toddy. The fruits are large and have a thick coating of fibrous pulp, which is cooked and eaten or made into jelly. The young palm plants are cultivated for the market, as cabbages are with us, and eaten, either when fresh or after being dried in the sun.

69. BOSWELLIA THURIFERA.--This Coromandel tree furnishes the resin known as olibanum, which is supposed to have been the frankincense of the ancients. It is sometimes used in medicine as an astringent and stimulant, and is employed, because of its grateful perfume, as an incense in churches.

70. BROMELIA KARATAS.--The Corawa fiber, or silk-grass of Guiana, is obtained from this plant, which is very strong, and much used for bowstrings, fishing lines, nets, and ropes.

71. BROMELIA PINGUIN.--This is very common as a hedge or fence plant in the West Indies. The leaves, when beaten with a blunt mallet and macerated in water, produce fibers from which beautiful fabrics are manufactured. The fruit yields a cooling juice much used in fevers.

72. BROSIMUM ALICASTRUM.--The bread-nut tree of Jamaica. The nuts or seeds produced by this tree are said to form an agreeable and nutritious article of food. When cooked they taste like hazelnuts. The young branches and shoots are greedily eaten by horses and cattle, and the wood resembles mahogany, and is used for making furniture.

73. BROSIMUM GALACTODENDRON.--The cow tree of South America, which yields a milk of as good quality as that from the cow. It forms large forests on the mountains near the town of Cariaco and elsewhere along the seacoast of Venezuela, reaching to a considerable height. In South America the cow tree is called Palo de Vaca, or Arbol de Leche. Its milk, which is obtained by making incisions in the trunk, so closely resembles the milk of the cow, both in appearance and quality, that it is commonly used as an article of food by the inhabitants of the places where the tree is abundant. Unlike many other vegetable milks, it is perfectly wholesome, and very nourishing, possessing an agreeable taste, and a pleasant balsamic odor, its only unpleasant quality being a slight amount of stickiness. The chemical analysis of this milk has shown it to possess a composition closely resembling some animal substances; and, like animal milk, it quickly forms a cheesy scum, and after a few days' exposure to the atmosphere, turns sour and putrefies. It contains upwards of 30 per cent of a resinous substance called _galactine_.

74. BRYA EBENUS.--Jamaica or West India ebony tree. This is not the plant that yields the true ebony-wood of commerce. Jamaica ebony is of a greenish-brown color, very hard, and so heavy that it sinks in water. It takes a good polish, and is used by turners for the manufacture of numerous kinds of small wares.

75. BYRSONIMA SPICATA.--A Brazilian plant, furnishing an astringent bark used for tanning, and also containing a red coloring matter employed in dyeing. The berries are used in medicine, and a decoction of the roots is used for ulcers.

76. CAESALPINIA BONDUC.--A tropical plant, bearing the seeds known as nicker nuts, or bonduc nuts. These are often strung together for necklaces. The kernels have a very bitter taste, and the oil obtained from them is used medicinally.

77. CAESALPINIA PULCHERRIMA.--This beautiful flowering leguminous plant is a native of the East Indies, but is cultivated in all the tropics. In Jamaica it is called the "Barbados flower." The wood is sought after for charcoal, and a decoction of the leaves and flowers is used in fevers.

78. CAESALPINIA SAPPAN.--The brownish-red wood of this Indian tree furnishes the Sappan wood of commerce, from which dyers obtain a red color, principally used for dyeing cotton goods. Its root also affords an orange-yellow dye.

79. CALAMUS ROTANG.--This is one of the palms that furnish the canes or rattans used for chair bottoms, sides of pony-carriages, and similar purposes. It is a climbing palm and grows to an immense length; specimens 300 feet long have been exhibited, climbing over and amongst the branches of trees, supporting themselves by means of the hooked spines attached to the leaf stalks. _C. rudentum_ and _C. viminalis_ furnish flexible canes. In their native countries they are used for a variety of manufacturing purposes, also for ropes and cables used by junks and other coasting vessels. In the Himalayas they are used in the formation of suspension bridges across rivers and deep ravines. _C. scipionum_ furnishes the well-known Malacca canes used for walking sticks. They are naturally of a rich brown color. The clouded and mottled appearance which some of these present is said to be imparted to them by smoking and steaming.

80. CALLISTEMON SALIGNUS.--A medium-sized tree from Australia; one of the many so-called tea trees of that country. The wood, which is very hard, is known as stone wood and has been used for wood engraving. Layers of the bark readily peel off; hence it also receives the name of paper-bark plant.

81. CALLITRIS QUADRIVALVIS.--This coniferous plant is a native of Barbary. It yields a hard, durable, and fragrant timber, and is much employed in the erection of mosques, etc., by the Africans of the North. The resin that exudes from the tree is used in varnish under the name of gum-sandarach. In powder it forms a principal ingredient of the article known as pounce.

82. CALOPHYLLUM CALABA.--This is called calaba tree in the West Indies, and an oil, fit for burning, is expressed from the seeds. In the West Indies these seeds are called Santa Maria nuts.

83. CALOTROPIS GIGANTEA.--The inner bark of this plant yields a valuable fiber, capable of bearing a greater strain than hemp. All parts of it abound in a very acrid milky juice, which hardens into a substance resembling gutta-percha; but in its fresh state it is a valuable remedy in cutaneous diseases. The bark of the root also possesses similar medical qualities; and its tincture yields _mudarine_, a substance that has the property of gelatinizing when heated, and returning to the fluid state when cool. Paper has been made from the silky down of the seeds.

84. CAMELLIA JAPONICA.--A well-known green-house plant, cultivated for its large double flowers. The seeds furnish an oil of an agreeable odor, which is used for many domestic purposes.

85. CAMPHORA OFFICINARUM.--This tree belongs to the _Lauraceae_. Camphor is prepared from the wood by boiling chopped branches in water, when, after some time, the camphor becomes deposited and is purified by sublimation. It is mainly produced in the island of Formosa. The wood of the tree is highly prized for manufacturing entomological cabinets. As the plant grows well over a large area in the more Southern States, it is expected that the preparation of its products will become a profitable industry.

86. CANELLA ALBA.--This is a native of the West Indies, and furnishes a pale olive-colored bark with an aromatic odor, and is used as a tonic. It is used by the natives as a spice. It furnishes the true canella bark of commerce, also known as white-wood bark.

87. CAPPARIS SPINOSA.--The caper plant, a native of the South of Europe and of the Mediterranean regions. The commercial product consists of the flower-buds, and sometimes the unripe fruits, pickled in vinegar. The wood and bark possess acrid qualities which will act as a blister when applied to the skin.

88. CARAPA GUIANENSIS.--A meliaceous plant, native of tropical America, where it grows to a height of 60 to 80 feet. The bark of this tree possesses febrifugal properties and is also used for tanning. By pressure, the seeds yield a liquid oil called carap-oil or crab-oil, suitable for burning in lamps.

89. CARICA PAPAYA.--This is the South American papaw tree, but is cultivated in most tropical countries. It is also known as the melon-apple. The fruit is of a dingy orange-color, of an oblong form, about 8 to 10 inches long, by 3 or 4 inches broad. It is said that the juice of the tree, or an infusion of the leaves and fruit, has the property of rendering tough fiber quite tender. Animals fed upon the fruit and leaves will have very tender and juicy flesh.

90. CARLUDOVICA PALMATA.--A pandanaceous plant from Panama and southward. Panama hats are made from the leaves of this plant. The leaves are cut when young, and the stiff parallel veins removed, after which they are slit into shreds, but not separated at the stalk end, and immersed in boiling water for a short time, then bleached in the sun.

91. CARYOCAR NUCIFERUM.--On the river banks of Guiana this grows to a large-sized tree. It yields the butter-nuts, or souari-nuts of commerce. These are of a flattened kidney shape, with a hard woody shell of a reddish-brown color, and covered with wart-like protuberances. The nuts are pleasant to eat, and yield, by expression, an oil called Piquia oil, which possesses the flavor of the fruit.

92. CARYOPHYLLUS AROMATICUS.--This myrtaceous plant produces the well-known spice called cloves. It forms a beautiful evergreen, rising from 20 to 30 feet in height. The cloves of commerce are the unexpanded flower-buds; they are collected by beating the tree with rods, when the buds, from the jointed character of their stalks, readily fall, and are received on sheets spread on purpose; they are then dried in the sun. All parts of the plant are aromatic, from the presence of a volatile oil. The oil is sometimes used in toothache and as a carminative in medicine.

93. CARYOTA URENS.--This fine palm is a native of Ceylon, and is also found in other parts of India, where it supplies the native population with various important articles. Large quantities of toddy, or palm-wine, are prepared from the juice, which, when boiled, yields very good palm sugar or jaggery, and also excellent sugar candy. Sago is also prepared from the central or pithy part of the trunk, and forms a large portion of the food of the natives. The fiber from the leaf stalk is of great strength; it is known as Kittool fiber, and is used for making ropes, brushes, brooms, etc. A woolly kind of scurf, scraped off the leaf stalks, is used for calking boats, and the stem furnishes a small quantity of wood.

94. CASIMIROA EDULIS.--A Mexican plant, belonging to the orange family, with a fruit about the size of an ordinary orange, which has an agreeable taste, but is not considered to be wholesome. The seeds are poisonous; the bark is bitter, and is sometimes used medicinally.

95. CASSIA ACUTIFOLIA.--The cassias belong to the leguminous family. The leaflets of this and some other species produce the well-known drug called senna. That known as Alexandria senna is produced by the above. East Indian senna is produced by _C. elongata_. Aleppo senna is obtained from _C. obovata_. The native species, _C. marylandica_, possesses similar properties. The seeds of _C. absus_, a native of Egypt, are bitter, aromatic, and mucilaginous, and are used as a remedy for ophthalmia. _C. fistula_ is called the Pudding-Pipe tree, and furnishes the cassia pods of commerce. The seeds of _C. occidentalis_, when roasted, are used as a substitute for coffee in the Mauritius and in the interior of Africa.

96. CASTILLOA ELASTICA.--This is a Mexican tree, which yields a milky juice, forming caoutchouc, but is not collected for commerce except in a limited way.