purposes as an emollient. The flowers tinge spirits of wine 
red, or by the addition of a little alum a beautiful violet. 
Shoes or other similar things are blackened, by rubbing 
the flowers upon them. In Cochinchina the plant is so 
common that garden hedges are often made of it. 
Rumf says that in Amboyna it was in his days employed 
as a common ornament on occasions of festivity and even at 
funerals. From its constant use for blacking shoes it had 
acquired the barbarous Portuguese name of Fula Sapato. 
