Part 5

225. GUAZUMA TOMENTOSA.--This plant is nearly allied to the chocolate-nut tree, and yields fruits that abound in mucilage, as also does the bark of the young shoots. The mucilage is given out in water, and has been used as a substitute for gelatin or albumen in clarifying cane juice in the manufacture of sugar. The timber is light, and is employed for the staves of sugar hogsheads; it is known in Jamaica as bastard cedar. A strong fiber is obtained from the young shoots.

226. GUILIELMA SPECIOSA.--The peach palm of Venezuela. The fruits are borne in large drooping bunches, and their fleshy outer portion contains starchy matter, which forms a portion of the food of the natives. They are cooked and eaten with salt, and are said to resemble a potato in flavor. A beverage is prepared by fermenting them in water, and the meal obtained from them is made into bread. The wood of the old trees is black, and so hard as to turn the edge of an ax.

227. HAEMATOXYLON CAMPECHIANUM.--The logwood tree. This dyestuff is largely used by calico printers and other dyeing manufacturers. It is also used as an ingredient in some writing inks. The heart wood is the part used for dyeing. This is cut into chips which yield their color to water and alcohol. The colors are various according to treatment, giving violet, yellow, purple, and blue, but the consumption of logwood is for black colors, which are obtained by alum and iron bases.

228. HARDENBERGIA MONOPHYLLA.--An Australian climbing plant of the leguminous family. The long, carrot-shaped, woody root was called, by the early settlers in that country, sarsaparilla, and is still used in infusion as a substitute for that root.

229. HARTIGHSEA SPECTABILIS.--A New Zealand tree, called Wahahe by the natives, who employ the leaves as a substitute for hops, and also prepare from them a spirituous infusion as a stomachic medicine.

230. HELICONIA BIHAI.--A plant of the order _Musaceae_, from South America. The young shoots are eaten by the natives, and the fruits are also collected and used as food. It also furnishes a useful fiber.

231. HEVEA BRASILIENSIS.--A tree of tropical America growing in damp forests, especially in the Amazon valley, which, together with other trees called siphonia furnish the Para rubber, or American caoutchouc. The sap is collected from incisions made in the tree during the dry season, and is poured over clay molds and dried by gentle heat, successive pourings being made till a sufficiently thick layer is produced.

232. HIBISCUS ROSA SINENSIS.--The flowers of this malvaceous plant contain a quantity of astringent juice, and, when bruised, rapidly turn black or deep purple; they are used by the Chinese ladies for dyeing their hair and eyebrows, and in Java for blacking shoes.

233. HIBISCUS SABDARIFFA.--This species is known in the West Indies as red sorrel, on account of the calyxes and capsules having an acid taste. They are made into cooling drinks, by sweetening and fermentation. The bark contains a strong useful fiber which makes good ropes if not too much twisted. It is also known as the Roselle plant.

234. HIBISCUS TILIACEUS.--A plant common to many tropical countries. Its wood is extremely light when dry, and is employed by the Polynesians for getting fire by friction, which is said to be a very tedious and tiresome operation, and difficult to accomplish. Good fiber is also obtained from the bark.

235. HIPPOMANE MANCINELLA.--This is the poisonous manchineel tree of South America and other tropical regions. The virulent nature of the juice of this tree has given it a reputation equal to that forced upon the upas tree of Java. The juice is certainly very acrid, and even its smoke, when burning, causes temporary blindness. The fruit is equally dangerous, and from its beautiful appearance is sometimes partaken of by those who are unaware of its deleterious properties, but its burning effects on the lips soon causes them to desist. Indians are said to poison their arrows with the juice of this tree.

236. HURA CREPITANS.--This tropical plant is known as the sand-box tree. Its deep-furrowed, rounded, hard-shelled fruit is about the size of an orange, and when ripe and dry, it bursts open with a sharp noise like the report of a pistol; hence, it is also called the monkey's dinner bell. An emetic oil is extracted from the seeds, and a venomous, milky juice is abundant in all parts of the plant.

237. HYMENAEA COURBARIL.--The locust tree of the West Indies; also called algarroba in tropical regions. This is one of the very largest growing trees known, and living trees in Brazil are supposed to have been growing at the commencement of the Christian era. The timber is very hard, and is much used for building purposes. A valuable resin, resembling the anime of Africa, exudes from the trunk, and large lumps of it are found about the roots of old trees.

238. HYPHAENE THEBAICA.--The doum, or doom palm, or gingerbread of Egypt; it grows also in Nubia, Abyssinia, and Arabia. The fibrous, mealy husks of the seeds are eaten, and taste almost like gingerbread. In the Thebias this palm forms extensive forests, the roots spreading over the lurid ruins of one of the largest and most splendid cities of the ancient world.

239. ICICA HEPTAPHYLLA.--The incense tree of Guiana, a tall-growing tree, furnishing wood of great durability. It is called cedar wood on account of its fragrant odor. The balsam from the trunk is highly odoriferous, and used in perfumery, and is known as balsam of acouchi; it is used in medicine. The balsam and branches are burned as incense in churches.

240. ILEX PARAGUAYENSIS.--This is the tea plant of South America, where it occupies the same important position in the domestic economy of the country as the Chinese tea does in this. The _mate_ is prepared by drying and roasting the leaves, which are then reduced to a powder and made into packages. When used, a small portion of the powder is placed in a vessel, sugar is added, and boiling water poured over the whole. It has an agreeable, slightly aromatic odor, rather bitter to the taste, but very refreshing and invigorating to the human frame after severe fatigue. It acts in some degree as an aperient and diuretic, and in overdoses produces intoxication. It contains the same active principle, theine as tea and coffee, but not their volatile and empyreumatic oils.

241. ILLICIUM ANISATUM.--This magnoliaceous plant is a native of China, and its fruit furnishes the star anise of commerce. In China, Japan, and India it is used as a condiment in the preparation of food, and is chewed to promote digestion, and the native physicians prescribe it as a carminative. It is the flavoring ingredient of the preparation _Anisette de Bordeaux_. Its flavor and odor are due to a volatile oil, which is extracted by distillation, and sold as oil of anise, which is really a different article.

242. ILLICIUM FLORIDANUM.--A native of the Southern States. The leaves are said to be poisonous; hence, the plant is sometimes called poison bag. The bark has been used as a substitute for cascarilla.

243. ILLICIUM RELIGIOSUM.--A Japanese species, which reaches the size of a small tree, and is held sacred by the Japanese, who form wreaths of it with which to decorate the tombs of their deceased friends, and they also burn the fragrant bark as incense. Their watchmen use the powdered bark for burning in graduated tubes, in order to mark the time, as it consumes slowly and uniformly. The leaves are said to possess poisonous properties.

244. INDIGOFERA TINCTORIA.--The indigo plant, a native of Asia, but cultivated and naturalized in many countries. The use of indigo as a dye is of great antiquity. Both Dioscorides and Pliny mention it, and it is supposed to have been employed by the ancient Egyptians. The indigo of commerce is prepared by throwing the fresh cut plants into water, where they are steeped for twelve hours, when the water is run off into a vessel and agitated in order to promote the formation of the blue coloring matter, which does not exist ready formed in the tissues of the plant, but is the result of the oxidation of other substances contained in them. The coloring matter then settles at the bottom; it is then boiled to a certain consistency and afterwards spread out on cloth frames, where it is further drained of water and pressed into cubes or cakes for market.

245. IPOM[OE]A PURGA.--A species of jalap is obtained from this convolvulaceous plant; this is a resinous matter contained in the juices.

246. IRIARTELLA SETIGERA.--A South American palm growing in the underwood of the forests on the Amazon and Rio Negro. The Indians use its slender stems for making their blow pipes or gravatanas, through which they blow small poisoned arrows with accuracy to a considerable distance.

247. JAMBOSA MALACCENSIS.--This Indian plant belongs to the myrtle family. It produces a good-sized edible fruit known as the Malay apple.

248. JASMINUM SAMBAC TRIFOLIATUM.--A native of South America. The flowers are very fragrant, and an essential oil, much used in perfumery under the name of jasmine oil, is obtained from this and other species.

249. JATROPHA CLAUCA.--An East Indian plant the seeds of which when crushed furnish an oil which is used in medicine.

250. JATROPHA CURCAS.--The physic nut tree of tropical America. This plant contains a milky, acrid, glutinous juice, which forms a permanent stain when dropped on linen, and which might form a good marking ink. Burning oil is expressed from the seeds in the Philippine Islands; the oil, boiled with oxide of iron, is used in China as a varnish. It is used in medicine in various ways, the leaves for fomentations, the juice in treating ulcers, and the seeds as purgatives.

251. JUBAEA SPECTABILIS.--The coquito palm of Chili. The seed or nut is called cokernut, and has a pleasant, nutty taste. These are used by the Chilian confectioners in the preparation of sweetmeats, and by the boys as marbles, being in shape and size like them. The leaves are used for thatching, and the trunks or stems are hollowed out and converted into water pipes. A sirup called Miel de Palma or palm honey, is prepared by boiling the sap of this tree to the consistency of treacle, and is much esteemed for domestic use as sugar. The sap is obtained by cutting off the crown of leaves when it immediately begins to flow and continues for several months provided a thin slice is shaved off the top every morning. Full-grown trees will thus yield 90 gallons.

252. KAEMPFERIA GALANGA.--This plant belongs to the family of gingers. The root stocks have an aromatic fragrance and are used medicinally in India as well as in the preparation of perfumery. The flowers appear before the leaves upon very short stems.

253. KIGELIA PINNATA.--This plant is interesting from the circumstance of its being held sacred in Nubia, where the inhabitants celebrate their religious festivals under it by moonlight, and poles made of its wood are erected as symbols of special veneration before the houses of their great chiefs. The fruits, which are very large, when cut in half and slightly roasted, are employed as an outward application to relieve pains.

254. KRAMERIA TRIANDRA.--This is one of the species that yield the rhatany roots of commerce. In Peru an extract is made from this species, which is a mild, easily assimilated, astringent medicine. It acts as a tonic, and is used in intermittent and putrid fevers. It is also styptic, and when applied in plasters is used in curing ulcers. The color of the infusion of the roots is blood-red, on which account it is used to adulterate, or rather it forms an ingredient in the fabrication of port wine.

255. KYDIA CALYCINA.--An Indian plant of the family _Byttneriaceae_. The bark is employed in infusion as a sudorific and in cutaneous diseases, and its fibrous tissue is manufactured into cordage.

256. LAGETTA LINTEARIA.--The lace-bark tree of Jamaica. The inner bark consists of numerous concentric layers of fibers, which interlace in all directions, and thus present a great resemblance to lace. Articles of apparel are made of it. Caps, ruffles, and even complete suits of lace are made with it. It bears washing with common soap, and when bleached in the sun acquires a degree of whiteness equal to the best artificial lace. Ropes made of it are very durable and strong.

257. LANSIUM DOMESTICUM.--A low-growing tree of the East Indies, which is cultivated to some extent for its fruit, which is known in Java and Malacca as lanseh fruit, and is much esteemed for its delicate aroma; the pulp is of somewhat firm consistence and contains a cooling, refreshing juice.

258. LAPAGERIA ROSEA.--A twining plant from Chili. The flowers are very beautiful, and are succeeded by berries, which are said to be sweet and eatable. The root has qualities closely resembling sarsaparilla and used for the same purpose.

259. LATANIA RUBRA.--A very beautiful palm from the Mauritius. The fruit contains a small quantity of pulp, which is eaten by the natives, but is not considered very palatable by travelers.

260. LAWSONIA INERMIS.--This is the celebrated henna of the East. The use of the powdered leaves as a cosmetic is very general in Asia and northern Africa, the practice having descended from very remote ages, as is proved by the Egyptian mummies, the parts dyed being usually the finger and toe nails, the tips of the fingers, the palms of the hands, and soles of the feet, receiving a reddish color, considered by Oriental belles as highly ornamental. Henna is prepared by reducing the leaves to powder, and when used is made into a pasty mass with water and spread on the part to be dyed, being allowed to remain for twelve hours. The plant is known in the West Indies as Jamaica Mignonette.

261. LECYTHIS OLLARIA.--This tree produces the hard urn-shaped fruits known in Brazil as monkey cups. The seeds are eatable and sold as Sapucaia nuts. The fruit vessels are very peculiar, being 6 inches in diameter and having closely fitting lids, which separate when the seeds are mature. The bark is composed of a great number of layers, not thicker than writing paper, which the Indians separate and employ as cigar wrappers.

262. LEPTOSPERMUM LANIGERUM.--A plant known throughout Australia as Captain Cook's tea tree, from the circumstance that, on the first landing of this navigator in that country, he employed a decoction of the leaves of this plant as a corrective to the effects of scurvy among his crew, and this proved an efficient medicine. Thickets of this plant, along the swampy margin of streams, are known as Tea-tree scrubs. It is also known among the natives as the Manuka plant. The wood is hard and heavy, and was formerly used for making sharp-pointed spears. It belongs to the myrtle family of plants.

263. LICUALA ACUTIFIDA.--This palm is a native of the island of Pulo-Penango, and yields canes known by the curious name of Penang Lawyers. It is a low-growing plant, its stems averaging an inch in diameter. The stems are converted into walking canes by scraping their rough exteriors and straightening them by means of fire heat.

264. LIMONIA ACIDISSIMA.--An East India shrub which produces round fruits about the size of damson plums, of a yellowish color, with reddish or purplish tints. They are extremely acid, and the pulp is employed in Java as a substitute for soap.

265. LIVISTONA AUSTRALIS.--This is one of the few palms found in Australia. The unexpanded leaves, prepared by being scalded and dried in the shade, are used for making hats, while the still younger and more tender leaves are eaten like cabbage.

266. LUCUMA MAMMOSUM.--This sapotaceous plant is cultivated for its fruit, which is called marmalade, on account of its containing a thick agreeably flavored pulp, bearing some resemblance in appearance and taste to quince marmalade. A native of South America.

267. MABA GEMINATA.--The ebony wood of Queensland. The heart wood is black, and the outside wood of a bright red color. It is close-grained, hard, heavy, elastic and tough, and takes a high polish.

268. MACADAMIA TERNIFOLIA.--An Australian tree which produces an edible nut called the Queensland nut. This fruit is about the size of a walnut, and within a thick pericarp, a smooth brown-colored nut, inclosing a kernel of a rich and agreeable flavor, resembling in some degree that of a filbert.

269. MACHAERIUM FIRMUM.--A South American tree which furnishes a portion of the rosewood of commerce. Various species of the genus, under the common Brazilian name of Jaccaranda, are said to yield this wood, but there is some uncertainty about the origin of the various commercial rosewoods.

270. MACLURA TINCTORIA.--The fustic tree. Large quantities of the bright yellow wood of this tree are exported from South America for the use of dyers, who obtain from it shades of yellow, brown, olive, and green. A concentrated decoction of the wood deposits, on cooling, a yellow crystalline matter called Morine. This tree is sometimes called old fustic, in order to distinguish it from another commercial dye called young fustic, which is obtained in Europe from a species of Rhus.

271. MACROPIPER METHYSTICUM.--A plant of the pepper family, which furnishes the root called Ava by the Polynesians. It has narcotic properties, and is employed medicinally, but is chiefly remarkable for the value attached to it as a narcotic and stimulant beverage, of which the natives partake before they commence any important business or religious rites. It is used by chewing the root and extracting the juice, and has a calming rather than an intoxicating effect. It is a filthy preparation, and only partaken of by the lower classes of Feejeeans.

272. MACROZAMIA DENISONII.--An Australian cycad, the seeds of which contain a large amount of farina, or starchy matter, which formerly supplied a considerable amount of food for the natives of that country. The fresh seeds are very acrid, but when steeped in water and roasted they become palatable and nutritious.

273. MALPIGHIA GLABRA.--A low-growing tree of the West Indies, which produces an edible fruit called the Barbadoes cherry.

274. MAMMEA AMERICANA.--The fruit of this tree, under the name of mammee apple, is very much esteemed in tropical countries. It often attains a size of 6 or 8 inches in diameter and is of a yellow color. The outer rind and the pulp which immediately surrounds the seeds are very bitter, but the intermediate is sweet and aromatic. The seeds are used as anthelmintics, an aromatic liquor is distilled from the flowers, and the acrid, resinous gum distilled from the bark is used to destroy insects.

275. MANETTIA CORDIFOLIA.--This climbing-plant is a native of South America, and belongs to the family of _Cinchonaceae_. The rind of the root has emetic properties, and is used in Brazil for dropsy and other diseases. It is also exported under the name of Ipecacuan, chiefly from Buenos Ayres.

276. MANGIFERA INDICA.--The mango, in some of its varieties esteemed as the most delicious of tropical fruits, while many varieties produce fruit whose texture resembles cotton and tastes of turpentine. The unripe fruit is pickled. The pulp contains gallic and citric acid. The seeds possess anthelmintic properties. A soft gum resin exudes from the wounded bark, which is used medicinally.

277. MANICARIA SACCIFERA.--Bussu palm of South America. Its large leaves are used for thatching roofs, for which purpose they are well fitted and very durable. The fibrous spathe furnishes a material of much value to the natives. This fibrous matter when taken off entire is at once converted into capital bags, in which the Indian keeps the red paint for his toilet, or the silk cotton for his arrows, or he stretches out the larger ones to make himself a cap of nature's own weaving, without seam or joint.

278. MANIHOT UTILISSIMA.--This euphorbiaceous plant yields cassava or mandiocca meal. It is extensively cultivated in tropical climates and supplies a great amount of food. The root is the part used, and in its natural condition is a most virulent poison, but by grating the roots to a pulp the poison is expelled by pressure, and altogether dissipated by cooking. The expressed juice, when allowed to settle, deposits the starch known as tapioca.

279. MARANTA ARUNDINACEA.--The arrowroot plant, cultivated for its starch. The tubers being reduced to pulp with water, the fecula subsides, and is washed and dried for commerce. It is a very pure kind of starch, and very nutritious. The term arrowroot is said to be derived from the fact that the natives of the West Indies use the roots of the plant as an application to wounds made by poison arrows.

280. MAURITIA FLEXUOSA.--The Moriche, or Ita palm, very abundant on the banks of the Amazon, Rio Negro, and Orinoco Rivers. In the delta of the latter it occupies swampy tracts of ground, which are at times completely inundated, and present the appearance of forests rising out of the water. These swamps are frequented by a tribe of Indians called Guaranes, who subsist almost entirely upon the produce of this palm, and during the period of the inundations suspend their dwellings from the tops of its tall stems. The outer skin of the young leaves is made into string and cord for the manufacture of hammocks. The fermented sap yields palm wine, and another beverage is prepared from the young fruits, while the soft inner bark of the stem yields a farinaceous substance like sago.

281. MAXIMILIANA REGIA.--An Amazonian palm called Inaja. The spathes are so hard that, when filled with water, they will stand the fire, and are sometimes used by the Indians as cooking utensils. The Indians who prepare the kind of rubber called bottle rubber, make use of the hard stones of the fruit as fuel for smoking and drying the successive layers of milky juice as it is applied to the mold upon which the bottles are formed. The outer husk, also, yields a kind of saline flour used for seasoning their food.

282. MELALEUCA MINOR.--A native of Australia and the islands of the Indian Ocean. The leaves, being fermented, are distilled, and yield an oil known as cajuput or cajeput oil, which is green, and has a strong aromatic odor. It is valuable as an antispasmodic and stimulant, and at one time had a great reputation as a cure for cholera. In China the leaves are used as a tonic in the form of decoction.

283. MELICOCCA BIJUGA.--This sapindaceous tree is plentiful in tropical America and the West Indies, and is known as the Genip tree. It produces numerous green egg-shaped fruits, an inch in length, possessing an agreeable vinous and somewhat aromatic flavor, called honey berries or bullace plums. The wood of the tree is hard and heavy.

284. MELOCACTUS COMMUNIS.--Commonly called the Turk's Cap cactus, from the flowering portion on the top of the plant being of a cylindrical form and red color, like a fez cap. Notwithstanding that they grow in the most dry sterile places, they contain a considerable quantity of moisture, which is well known to mules, who resort to them when very thirsty, first removing the prickles with their feet.