Chapter 7

322. OSMANTHUS FRAGRANS.--This plant has long been cultivated as _Olea fragrans_. The flowers have a fine fragrance, and are used by the Chinese to perfume tea. It appears that they consider the leaves also valuable, for they are frequently found in what is expected to be genuine tea.

323. PACHIRA ALBA.--A South American tree the inner bark of which furnishes a strong useful fiber, employed in the manufacture of ropes and various kinds of cordage. The petals of the flowers are covered with a soft silky down which is used for stuffing cushions and pillows.

324. PANDANUS UTILIS.--The screw pine of the Mauritius, where it is largely cultivated for its leaves, which are manufactured into bags or sacks for the exportation of sugar. They are also used for making other domestic vessels and for tying purposes.

325. PAPPEA CAPENSIS.--A small tree of the soapberry or sapindaceous family, a native of the Cape of Good Hope, where the fruit is known as the wild plum, from the pulp of which a vinous beverage and excellent vinegar are prepared, and an eatable, though slightly purgative, oil is extracted from the seeds. The oil is also strongly recommended for baldness and scalp affections.

326. PAPYRUS ANTIQUORUM.--The paper-reed of Asia, which yielded the substances used as paper by the ancient Egyptians. The underground root-stocks spread horizontally under the muddy soil, continuing to throw up stems as they creep along. The paper was made from thin slices, cut vertically from the apex to the base of the stem, between its surface and center. The slices were placed side by side, according to the size required, and then, after being wetted and beaten with a wooden instrument until smooth, were pressed and dried in the sun.

327. PARITIUM ELATUM.--The mountain mahoe, a malvaceous plant, that furnishes the beautiful lace-like bark called Cuba bast, imported by nurserymen for tying their plants. It was at one time only seen as employed in tying together bundles of genuine Havana cigars. It forms a tree 40 feet or more in height, and yields a greenish-blue timber, highly prized by cabinet-makers.

328. PARKIA AFRICANA.--The African locust tree, producing seeds which the natives of Soudan roast, and then bruise and allow to ferment in water until they become putrid, when they are carefully washed, pounded into powder, and made into cakes, which are said to be excellent, though having a very unpleasant smell. The pulp surrounding the seeds is made into a sweet farinaceous preparation.

329. PARKINSONIA ACULEATA.--This leguminous plant is called Jerusalem Thorn. Although a native of Southern Texas and Mexico, it is found in many tropical countries, and is frequently used for making hedges. Indians in Mexico employ it as a febrifuge and sudorific and also as a remedy for epilepsy.

330. PARMENTIERA CEREIFERA.--In the Isthmus of Panama this plant is termed the Candle tree, because its fruits, often 4 feet long, look like yellow candles suspended from the branches. They have a peculiar, apple-like smell, and cattle that partake of the leaves or fruit have the smell communicated to the beef if killed immediately.

331. PASSIFLORA QUADRANGULARIS.--The fruit of this plant is the Granadilla of the tropics. The pulp has an agreeable though rather mawkish taste. The root is said to possess narcotic properties, and is used in the Mauritius as an emetic.

332. PAULLINIA SORBILIS.--The seeds of this climbing sapindaceous plant furnish the famous guarana of the Amazon and its principal tributaries. The ripe seeds, when thoroughly dried, are pounded into a fine powder, which made into dough with water, is formed into cylindrical rolls, from 5 to 8 inches long, becoming very hard when dry. It is used as a beverage, which is prepared by grating about half a teaspoonful of one of the cakes into about a teacup of water. It is much used by Brazilian miners, and is considered a preventive of all manner of diseases. It is also used by travelers, who supply themselves with it previous to undertaking lengthy or fatiguing journeys. Its active principle is identical with theine, of which it contains a larger quantity than exists in any other known plant, being more than double that contained in the best black tea.

333. PAVETTA BORBONICA.--This belongs to the quinine family. The roots are bitter, and are employed as a purgative; the leaves are also used medicinally.

334. PEDILANTHUS TITHYMALOIDES.--This euphorbiaceous plant has an acrid, milky, bitter juice; the root is emetic, and the dried branches are used medicinally.

335. PERESKIA ACULEATA.--The Barbadoes gooseberry, which belongs to the family _Cactaceae_. It grows about 15 feet in height, and produces yellow-colored, eatable, and pleasant-tasted fruit, which is used in the West Indies for making preserves.

336. PERSEA GRATISSIMA.--The avocado or alligator pear, a common tree in the West Indies. The fruits are pear-shaped, covered with a brownish-green or purple skin. They are highly esteemed where grown, but strangers do not relish them. They contain a large quantity of firm pulp, possessing a buttery or marrow-like taste, and are frequently called vegetable marrow. They are usually eaten with spice, lime-juice, pepper, and salt. An abundance of oil, for burning and for soap-making, may be obtained from the pulp. The seeds yield a deep, indelible black juice, which is used for marking linen.

337. PH[OE]NIX DACTYLIFERA.--The date palm, very extensively grown for its fruit, which affords the principal food for a large portion of the inhabitants of Africa, Asia, and southern Europe, and likewise of the various domestic animals--dogs, horses, and camels being alike partial to it. The tree attains to a great age, and bears annually for two hundred years. The huts of the poorer classes are constructed of the leaves: the fiber surrounding the bases of their stalks is used for making ropes and coarse cloth; the stalks are used for the manufacture of baskets, brooms, crates, walking sticks, etc., and the wood for building substantial houses; the heart of young leaves is eaten as a vegetable; the sap affords an intoxicating beverage. It may be further mentioned that the date was, probably, the palm which supplied the "branches of palm trees" mentioned by St. John (xii, 13) as having been carried by the people who went to meet Christ on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and from which Palm Sunday takes its name.

338. PHORMIUM TENAX.--This plant is called New Zealand flax, on account of the leaves containing a large quantity of strong, useful fiber, which is used by the natives of that country for making strings, ropes, and articles of clothing. The plant could be grown in this climate, and would no doubt be largely cultivated if some efficient mode of separating the fiber could be discovered.

339. PHOTINIA JAPONICA.--The Japanese Medlar, or Chinese Lo-quat. It bears a small oval fruit of an orange color when ripe, having a pleasant subacid flavor. It stands ordinary winters in this climate, and forms a fine evergreen, medium-sized tree.

340. PHYSOSTIGMA VENENOSUM.--A strong leguminous plant, the seeds of which are highly poisonous, and are employed by the natives of Old Calabar as an ordeal. Persons suspected of witchcraft or other crimes are compelled to eat them until they vomit or die, the former being regarded as proof of innocence, and the latter of guilt. Recently the seeds have been found to act powerfully in diseases of the eye.

341. PHYTELEPHAS MACROCARPA.--The vegetable ivory plant, a native of the northern parts of South America. The fruit consists of a collection of six or seven drupes; each contains from six to nine seeds, the vegetable ivory of commerce. The seeds at first contain a clear, insipid liquid; afterwards it becomes milky and sweet, and changes by degrees until it becomes hard as ivory. Animals eat the fruit in its young green state; a sweet oily pulp incloses the seeds, and is collected and sold in the markets under the name of Pipa de Jagua. Vegetable ivory may be distinguished from animal ivory by means of sulphuric acid, which gives a bright red color with the vegetable ivory, but none with the animal ivory.

342. PICRASMA EXCELSA.--This yields the bitter wood known as Jamaica Quassia. The tree is common in Jamaica, where it attains the height of 50 feet. The wood is of a whitish or yellow color, and has an intensely bitter taste. Although it is used as a medicine in cases of weak digestion, it acts as a narcotic poison on some animals, and the tincture is used as fly poison. Cups made of this wood, when filled with water and allowed to remain for some time, will impart tonic properties to the water.

343. PINCKNEYA PUBENS.--This cinchonaceous plant is a native of the Southern States and has a reputation as an antiperiodic. It is stated that incomplete examinations have detected _cinchonine_ in the bark. It has been used successfully as a substitute for quinine. A thorough examination of this plant seems desirable so that its exact medical value may be ascertained.

344. PIPER BETEL.--This plant belongs to the _Piperaceae_. Immense quantities of the leaves of this plant are chewed by the Malays. It tinges the saliva a bright red and acts as a powerful stimulant to the digestive organs and salivary glands; when swallowed it causes giddiness and other unpleasant symptoms in persons unaccustomed to its use.

345. PIPER NIGRUM.--This twining shrub yields the pepper of commerce. It is cultivated in the East and West Indies, Java, etc., the Malabar being held in the highest esteem. The fruit when ripe is of a red color, but it is gathered before being fully ripe and dried in the sun, when it becomes black and shriveled. White pepper is the same fruit with the skin removed. When analyzed, pepper is found to contain a hot acrid resin and a volatile oil, as well as a crystalline substance called _piperin_, which has been recommended as a substitute for quinine.

346. PISTACIA LENTISCUS.--The mastic tree, a native of southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia. Mastic is the resin of the tree and is obtained by making transverse incisions in the bark, from which it exudes in drops and hardens into small semitransparent tears. It is consumed in large quantities by the Turks for chewing to strengthen the gums and sweeten the breath. It is also used for varnishing.

347. PISTACIA TEREBINTHUS.--The Cyprus turpentine tree. The turpentine flows from incisions made in the trunk and soon becomes thick and tenacious, and ultimately hardens. Galls gathered from this tree are used for tanning purposes, one of the varieties of morocco leather being tanned with them.

348. PISTACIA VERA.--The pistacia tree, which yields the eatable pistachio nuts. It is a native of western Asia. The nuts are greatly eaten by the Turks and Greeks, as well as in the south of Europe, either simply dried like almonds or made into articles of confectionery.

349. PITHECOLOBIUM SAMAN.--This leguminous plant yields eatable pods, which are fed to cattle in Brazil. Some Mexican species produce pods that are boiled and eaten, and certain portions contain saponaceous properties. The pods are sometimes called Manila tamarinds. The leaves of this tree fold closely up at night, so that they do not prevent the radiation of heat from the surface of the ground, and dew is therefore deposited underneath its branches. The grass on the surface of the ground underneath this tree being thus wet with dew, while that under other trees is found to be dry, has given it the name of rain tree, under the supposition that the leaves dropped water during the night.

350. PITTOSPORUM UNDULATUM.--A plant from New Zealand, which reaches a considerable size, and furnishes a wood similar to boxwood. The flowers are very fragrant.

351. PLAGIANTHUS BETULINUS.--The inner bark of the young branches of this plant yields a very fine fiber, sometimes called New Zealand cotton, though more like flax than cotton; it is the Akaroa of the New Zealanders. In Tasmania it bears the name of Currajong. Good cordage and twine for fishing nets are made from this fiber. A superior paper pulp is prepared from the wood; it is also employed in making handles to baskets, rims for sieves, and hoops for barrels.

352. PLATONIA INSIGNIS.--A Brazilian tree which bears a fruit known in that country as Pacoury-uva. The pulp of this fruit is semiacid, very delicious, and is employed in making preserves. The seeds embedded in this pulp have the flavor of almonds.

353. PLUMBAGO SCANDENS.--The root of this plant is called Herbe du Diable in San Domingo; it is acrid in the highest degree, and is a most energetic blistering agent when fresh.

354. PLUMERIA ALBA.--A South American plant. The flowers are used in perfumery, and furnish the scent known as Frangipane or Frangipani. In Jamaica the plant is known as red jasmine.

355. POGOSTEMON PATCHOULY.--This plant affords the celebrated patchouli perfume. The peculiar odor of patchouli is disagreeable to some, but is very popular with many persons. The odoriferous part of the plant is the leaves and young tops, which yield a volatile oil by distillation, from which an essence is prepared; satchels of patchouli are made of coarsely powdered leaves. Genuine Indian shawls and Indian ink were formerly distinguished by their odor of this perfume, but the test does not now hold good. Ill effects, such as loss of sleep, nervous attacks, etc., have been ascribed to its extensive use.

356. PONGAMIA GLABRA.--Some years ago this tree was recommended as suitable for avenue-planting in the south of France. In India an oil called poonga is expressed from the seeds, which is much used for mixing with lamp oil. It is of a deep yellow color, and is fluid at temperatures above 60 deg. F., but below that it becomes solid.

357. PORTLANDIA GRANDIFLORA.--This plant belongs to the cinchonaceous family, and is said to possess properties similar to those of the true cinchona. The bark is exceedingly bitter.

358. PSIDIUM CATTLEYANUM.--This is the purple guava from China. The fruits are filled with juicy, pale flesh, of a very agreeable acid-sweet flavor.

359. PSIDIUM PYRIFERUM.--The West Indian guava, a well-known fruit in the tropics, but only known here in the shape of guava jelly. The wood of the tree has a fine, close grain, and has been experimented with as a substitute for boxwood for engraving purposes, but it is too soft to stand the pressure of printing.

360. PSYCHOTRIA LEUCANTHA.--A plant belonging to the cinchona family. Emetic properties are assigned to the roots, which are also used in dyeing. Native of Peru.

361. PTEROCARPUS MARSUPIUM.--This tree affords gum-kino, which is obtained by making incisions in the bark, from which the juice exudes and hardens into a brittle mass, easily broken into small angular, shining fragments of a bright ruby color. It is highly astringent. The wood is hard and valuable for manufacturing purposes.

362. PUNICA GRANATUM.--The pomegranate, a native of northern Africa and western Asia. The fruit is valued in warm countries on account of its delicious cooling and refreshing pulp. Numerous varieties are grown, some being sweet and vinous, and others acid or of a bitter, stringent taste; the color also varies from light to dark red. The bark of the root abounds in a peculiar principle called _punicin_. This bark appears to have been known to the ancients, and used by them as a vermifuge, and is still used in Hindostan as a specific against tapeworm. The rind of the fruit of the bitter varieties contains a large amount of tannin, and is used for tanning morocco leather. The flowers yield a red dye.

363. QUASSIA AMARA.--The wood of this plant furnishes Surinam quassia. It is destitute of smell, but has an intensely bitter taste, and is used as a tonic. The root has also reputed medicinal value, as also have the flowers.

364. QUILLAJA SAPONARIA.--The Quillai or Cully of the Chilians. Its bark is called soap-bark, and is rough and dark-colored externally, but internally consists of numerous regular whitish or yellowish layers, and contains a large quantity of carbonate of lime and other mineral matters. It is also rich in _saponine_, and is used for washing clothes; 2 ounces of the bark is sufficient to wash a dress. It also removes all spots or stains, and imparts a fine luster to wool; when powdered and rubbed between the hands in water, it makes a foam like soap. It is to be found in commerce.

365. RANDIA ACULEATA.--A small tree native of the West Indies, also found in southern Florida. In the West Indies the fruit is used for producing a blue dye, and medicinal properties are assigned to the bark.

366. RAPHIA TAEDIGERA.--The Jupati palm. The leaf-stalks of this plant are used by the natives of the Amazon for a variety of purposes, such as constructing inside walls, making boxes and baskets, etc. _R. vinifera_, the Bamboo palm, is similarly used by the Africans, who also make a very pliable cloth of the undeveloped leaves. Palm wine is one of the products of the genus.

367. RAVENALA MADAGASCARIENSIS.--This plant is called the Traveler's tree, probably on account of the water which is stored up in the large cup-like sheaths of the leaf-stalks, and which is sought for by travelers to allay their thirst. The broad leaves are used in Madagascar as thatch to cover their houses. The seeds are edible, and the blue, pulpy aril surrounding them yields an essential oil.

368. RHAPIS FLABELLIFORMIS.--The ground rattan palm. This is supposed to yield the walking-canes known as rattan, which is doubted. It is a native of southern China, and is also found in Japan, where it is known by the name of Kwanwortsik.

369. RHIZOPHORA MANGLE.--This plant is known as the mangrove, possibly because no man can live in the swampy groves that are covered with it in tropical countries. The seeds germinate, or form roots before they quit the parent tree, and drop into the mud as young trees. The old plants send out aerial roots into the water, upon which the mollusca adhere, and as the tide recedes they are seen clinging to the shoots, verifying the statements of old travelers that they had seen oysters growing on trees. All parts of this tree contain tannin. The bark yields dyes, and in the West Indies the leaves are used for poulticing wounds. The fruit is edible; a coarse, brittle salt is extracted from the roots, and in the Philippines the bark is used as a febrifuge.

370. ROTTLERA TINCTORIA.--This plant belongs to the order _Euphorbiaceae_, and reaches the size of a small tree in the Indian Archipelago and southern Australia. From the surface of the trilobed capsules of this plant, which are about the size of peas, a red, mealy powder is obtained, well known in India as kamala, and which is used by Hindoo silk-dyers, who obtain from it a deep, bright, durable orange or flame color of great beauty. This is obtained by boiling the powder in a solution of carbonate of soda. When the capsules are ripe the red powder is brushed off and collected for sale, no other preparation being necessary to preserve it. It is also used medicinally as an anthelmintic and has been successfully used in cases of tapeworm. A solution removes freckles and pustules and eruptions on the skin.

371. RUELLIA INDIGOTICA.--This small bush is extensively cultivated in China for the preparation of a blue coloring-matter of the nature of indigo. The pigment is prepared from the entire plant by a process similar to that employed in procuring the common indigo. It is sold in China in a pasty state. The water in which the plant is steeped is mixed with lime and rapidly agitated, when the coloring deposits at the bottom of the vessel.

372. SABAL ADANSONII.--This dwarf palm is a native of the Southern States. The leaves are made into fans, and the soft interior of the stem is edible.

373. SABAL UMBRACULIFERA.--This is a West Indian palm; the leaves are used for various purposes, such as making mats, huts, etc.

374. SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM.--The sugar cane. Where the sugar cane was first cultivated is unknown, but it is supposed to have been in the East Indies, for the Venetians imported it from thence by the Red Sea prior to the year 1148. It is supposed to have been introduced into the islands of Sicily, Crete, Rhodes, and Cyprus by the Saracens, as abundance of sugar was made in these islands previous to the discovery of the West Indies in 1492 by the Spaniards, and the East Indies and Brazil by the Portuguese in 1497 and 1560. It was cultivated afterwards in Spain, in Valentia, Granada, and Murcia by the Moors. In the fifteenth century it was introduced into the Canary Islands by the Spaniards and to Madeira by the Portuguese, and thence to the West India Islands and to Brazil. The Dutch began to make sugar in the island of St. Thomas in the year 1610 and in Jamaica in 1644. Its culture has since become general in warm climates and its use universal.

375. SAGUERUS SACCHARIFER.--The arenga palm, which is of great value to the Malays. The black horsehair like fiber surrounding its leaf-stalks is made into cordage; a large amount of toddy or palm wine is obtained by cutting off the flower spikes, which, when inspissated, affords sugar, and when fermented a capital vinegar. Considerable quantities of inferior sago and several other products of minor importance are derived from this palm.

376. SAGUS RUMPHII.--This palm produces the sago of commerce, which is prepared from the soft inner portion of the trunk. It is obtained by cutting the trunk into small pieces, which are split and the soft substance scooped out and pounded in water till the starchy substance separates and settles. This is sago meal; but before being exported it is made into what is termed pearl sago. This is a Chinese process, principally carried on at Singapore. The meal is washed, strained, and spread out to dry; it is then broken up, pounded, and sifted until it is of a regular size. Small quantities being then placed in bags, these are shaken about until it becomes granulated or pearled.