Part 6

285. MESEMBRYANTHEMUM CRYSTALLINUM.--The ice plant, so called in consequence of every part of the plant being covered with small watery pustules, which glisten in the sun like fragments of ice. Large quantities of this plant are collected in the Canaries and burned, the ashes being sent to Spain for the use of glass makers. _M. edule_ is called the Hottentot's fig, its fruit being about the size of a small fig, and having a pleasant, acid taste when ripe. _M. tortuosum_ possesses narcotic properties, and is chewed by the Hottentots to induce intoxication. The fruits possess hygrometric properties, the dried, shriveled, capsules swelling out and opening so as to allow of the escape of the seeds when moistened by rain, which at the same time fits the soil for their germination.

286. MIKANIA GUACO.--A composite plant which has gained some notoriety as the supposed Cundurango, the cancer-curing bark. It has long been supposed to supply a powerful antidote for the bite of venomous serpents.

287. MIMUSOPS BALATA.--The Bully tree. This sapotaceous plant attains a great size in Guiana and affords a dense, close-grained, valuable timber. Its small fruits, about the size of coffee berries, are delicious when ripe. The flowers also yield a perfume when distilled in water, and oil is expressed from the seeds.

288. MIMUSOPS ELENGI.--A native of Ceylon, where its hard, heavy, durable timber is used for building purposes. The seed also affords a great amount of oil.

289. MONODORA GRANDIFLORA.--An African plant belonging to the Anonaceae. It produces large fruit, which contains a large quantity of seeds about the size of the Scarlet-Runner bean. They are aromatic and impart to the fruit the odor and flavor of nutmeg; hence they are also known as calabash nutmegs.

290. MONSTERA DELICIOSA.--This is a native of southern Mexico and yields a delicious fruit with luscious pineapple flavor. The outer skin of the fruit, if eaten, causes a stinging sensation in the mouth. This is easily removed when the fruit is ripe. The leaves are singularly perforated with holes at irregular intervals, from natural causes not sufficiently explained. In Trinidad the plant is called the Ceriman.

291. MORINGA PTERYGOSPERMA.--A native of the East Indies, where it bears the name of horse-radish tree. The seeds are called ben nuts and supply a fluid oil, highly prized by watchmakers, called oil of ben. The root is pungent and stimulant and tastes like horse-radish.

292. MORONOBEA COCCINEA.--The hog gum tree, which attains the height of 100 feet. A fluid juice exudes from incisions in the trunk and hardens into a yellow resin. It is said the hogs in Jamaica when wounded rub the injured part against the tree so as to cover it with the gum, which possesses vulnerary properties; hence its name. The resin has been employed as a substitute for copaiba balsam, and plasters are made of it.

293. MUCUNA PRURIENS.--A tall climbing plant of the West Indies and other warm climates. It is called the cowage, or cow-itch, on account of the seed pods being covered with short brittle hairs, the points of which are finely serrated, causing an unbearable itching when applied to the skin, which is relieved by rubbing the part with oil. It is employed as a vermifuge. In East Africa it is called Kitedzi. The sea beans found on the coast of Florida are the seeds of _Mucuna altissima_. In Cuba these are called bulls' eyes.

294. MURRAYA EXOTICA.--A Chinese plant of the orange family. The fruit is succulent, and the white flowers are very fragrant. They are used in perfumery.

295. MUSA CAVENDISHII.--This is a valuable dwarf species of the banana from southern China. It bears a large truss of fine fruit, and is cultivated to some extent in Florida, where it endures more cold than the West India species and fruits more abundantly.

296. MUSA ENSETE.--This Abyssinian species forms large foliage of striking beauty. The food is dry and uneatable; but the base of the flower stalk is eaten by the natives.

297. MUSA SAPIENTUM.--The banana plant. This has been cultivated and used as food in tropical countries from very remote times, and furnishes enormous quantities of nutritious food, and serves as a staple support to a large number of the human race. The expressed juice is in some countries made into a fermented liquor and the young shoots eaten as a vegetable.

298. MUSA TEXTILIS.--This furnishes the fiber known as manilla hemp, and is cultivated in the Philippine Islands for this product. The finer kinds of the fiber are woven into beautiful shawls and the coarser manufactured into cordage for ships. The fiber is obtained from the leaf-stalks.

299. MUSSAENDA FRONDOSA.--This cinchonaceous plant is a native of Ceylon. The bark and leaves are esteemed as tonic and febrifuges in the Mauritius, where they are known as wild cinchona. The leaves and flowers are also used as expectorants, and the juice of the fruit and leaves is used as an eyewash.

300. MYRISTICA MOSCHATA.--The nutmeg tree. The seed of this plant is the nutmeg of commerce, and mace is the seed cover of the same. When the nuts are gathered they are dried and the outer shell of the seed removed. The mace is also dried in the sun and assumes a golden yellow color. The most esteemed nutmegs come from Penang. At one time the nutmeg culture was monopolized by the Dutch, who were in the habit of burning them when the crop was too abundant, in order to keep up high prices.

301. MYROSPERMUM PERUIFERUM.--This plant yields the drug known as balsam of Peru, which is procured by making incisions in the bark, into which cotton rags are thrust; a fire is then made round the tree to liquefy the balsam. The balsam is collected by boiling the saturated rags in water. It is a thick, treacly looking liquid, with fragrant aromatic smell and taste, and is not used so much in medicine as it formerly was.

302. MYROSPERMUM TOLUIFERUM.--A South American tree, also called Myroxylon, which yields the resinous drug called balsam of Tolu. This substance is fragrant, having a warm, sweetish taste, and burns with an agreeable odor. It is used in perfumery and in the manufacture of pastilles, also for flavoring confectionery, as in Tolu lozenges.

303. MYRTUS COMMUNIS--The common myrtle. This plant is supposed to be a native of western Asia, but now grows abundantly in Italy, Spain, and the south of France. Among the ancients the myrtle was held sacred to Venus and was a plant of considerable importance, wreaths of it being worn by the victors of the Olympic games and other honored personages. Various parts of the plant were used in medicine, in cookery, and by the Tuscans in the preparation of myrtle wine, called _myrtidanum_. It is still used in perfumery, and a highly perfumed distillation is made from the flowers. The fruits are very aromatic and sweet, and are eaten fresh or dried and used as a condiment.

304. NANDINA DOMESTICA.--A shrub belonging to the family of berberries. It is a native of China and Japan, where it is extensively cultivated for its fruits. It is there known as Nandin.

305. NAUCLEA GAMBIR.--A native of the Malayan Islands, which yields the Gambir, or Terra Japonica of commerce. This is prepared by boiling the leaves in water until the decoction thickens, when it is poured into molds, where it remains until it acquires the consistency of clay; it is then cut into cubes and thoroughly dried. It is used as a masticatory in combination with the areca nut and betel leaf, and also for tanning purposes.

306. NECTANDRA LEUCANTHA.--The greenheart, or bibiru tree of British Guiana, furnishing bibiru bark, which is used medicinally as a tonic and febrifuge, its properties being due to the presence of an uncrystallizable alkaloid, also found in the seeds. The seeds are also remarkable for containing upwards of 50 per cent of starch, which is made into a kind of bread by the natives. The timber of this tree is extensively employed in shipbuilding, its great strength and durability rendering it peculiarly well suited for this purpose.

307. NEPENTHES DISTILLATORIA.--This pitcher plant is a native of Ceylon. The pitchers are partly filled with water before they open; hence it was supposed to be produced by some distilling process. In Ceylon the old, tough, flexible stems are used as willows.

308. NEPHELIUM LITCHI.--This sapindaceous tree produces one of the valued indigenous fruits of China. There are several varieties; the fruit is round, about an inch and a half in diameter, with a reddish-colored, thin, brittle shell. When fresh they are filled with a sweet, white, transparent, jelly-like pulp. The Chinese are very fond of these fruits and consume large quantities of them, both in the fresh state and when dried and preserved.

309. NERIUM OLEANDER.--This is a well-known plant, often seen in cultivation, and seemingly a favorite with many. It belongs to a poisonous family and is a dangerous poison. A decoction of its leaves forms a wash, employed in the south of Europe to destroy vermin; and its powdered wood and bark constitute the basis of an efficacious rat-poison. Children have died from eating the flowers. A party of soldiers in Spain, having meat to roast in camp, procured spits and skewers of the tree, which there attains a large size. The wood having been stripped of its bark, and brought in contact with the meat, was productive of fatal consequences, for seven men died out of the twelve who partook of the meat and the other five were for some time dangerously ill.

310. NOTELAEA LIGUSTRINA.--The Tasmanian iron wood tree. It is of medium growth and furnishes wood that is extremely hard and dense, and used for making sheaves for ships' blocks, and for other articles that require to be of great strength. The plant belongs to the olive family.

311. OCHROMA LAGOPUS.--A tree that grows about 40 feet high, along the seashores in the West Indies and Central America, and known as the cork wood. The wood is soft, spongy, and exceedingly light, and is used as a substitute for cork, both in stopping bottles and as floats for fishing nets. It is also known as Balsa.

312. [OE]NOCARPUS BATAVA.--A South American palm, which yields a colorless, sweet-tasted oil, used in Para for adulterating olive oil, being nearly as good for this purpose as peanut oil, so largely used in Europe. A palatable but slightly aperient beverage is prepared by triturating the fruits in water, and adding sugar and mandiocca flour.

313. OLEA EUROPAEA.--The European olive, which is popularly supposed to furnish _all_ the olive oil of commerce. It is a plant of slow growth and of as slow decay. It is considered probable that trees at present existing in the Vale of Gethsemane are those which existed at the commencement of the Christian era. The oil is derived from the flesh of the fruit, and is pressed out of the bruised pulp; inferior kinds are from second and third pressings. The best salad oil is from Leghorn, and is sent in flasks surrounded by rush-work. Gallipoli oil is transported in casks, and Lucca in jars. The pickling olives are the unripe fruits deprived of a portion of their bitterness by soaking in water in which lime and wood ashes are sometimes added, and then bottled in salt and water with aromatics.

314. OPHIOCARYON PARADOXUM.--The snake nut tree of Guiana, so called on account of the curious form of the embryo of the seed, which is spirally twisted, so as to closely resemble a coiled-up blacksnake. The fruits are as large as those of the black walnut, and although they are not known to possess any medical properties, their singular snake-like form has induced the Indians to employ them as an antidote to the poison of venomous snakes. The plant belongs to the order of _Sapindaceae_.

315. OPHIORRHIZA MUNGOS.--A plant belonging to the cinchona family, the roots of which are reputed to cure snake bites. They are intensely bitter, and from this circumstance they are called earth-galls by the Malays.

316. OPHIOXYLON SERPENTINUM.--A native of the East Indies, where the roots are used in medicine as a febrifuge and alexipharmic.

317. OPUNTIA COCHINELLIFERA.--A native of Mexico, where it is largely cultivated in what are called the Nopal plantations for the breeding of the cochineal insect. This plant and others are also grown for a similar purpose in the Canary Islands and Madeira. Some of these plantations contain fifty thousand plants. Cochineal forms the finest carmine scarlet dye, and at least there are 2,000 tons of it produced yearly, in value worth $2,000 per ton.

318. OPUNTIA TUNA.--This plant is a native of Mexico and South America generally. It reaches a height of 15 to 20 feet and bears reddish-colored flowers, followed by pear-shaped fleshy fruits 2 or 3 inches long, and of a rich carmine color when ripe. It is cultivated for rearing the cochineal insect. The fruits are sweet and juicy; sugar has been made from them. The juice is used as a water-color and for coloring confectionery.

319. OREODAPHNE CALIFORNICA.--The mountain laurel, or spice bush, of California. When bruised it emits a strong, spicy odor, and the Spanish Americans use the leaves as a condiment.

320. OREODOXA OLERACEA.--The West Indian cabbage palm, which sometimes attains the height of 170 feet, with a straight cylindrical trunk. The semicylindrical portions of the leaf-stalk are formed into cradles for children, or made into splints for fractures. Their inside skin, peeled off while green, and dried, looks like vellum, and can be written upon. The heart of young leaves, or cabbage, is boiled as a vegetable or pickled, and the pith affords sago. Oil is obtained from the fruit.

321. ORMOSIA DASYCARPA.--This is the West Indian bead tree, or necklace tree, the seeds of which are roundish, beautifully polished, and of a bright scarlet color, with a black spot at one end resembling beads, for which they are substitutes, being made into necklaces, bracelets, or mounted in silver for studs and buttons. It is a leguminous plant.

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.