CLASSIFICATION OF ANGIOSPERMS. 629 



strccinia Flos-rcgincc of India. The flowers of Laii'sonia inermis, 

 native to and cultivated in the Orient, have an odor resembling that 

 of the Tea rose. The shrub is also cultivated to some extent in 

 the West Indies and is known in the Orient as the HEXXA PLANT. 

 The leaves are used in the preparation of the cosmetic Hinna. 

 They contain an orange or brownish-yellow dye which is used in 

 the dyeing of the skin and hair. 



d. PUNICACE^E OR POMEGRANATE FAMILY includes 

 a single genus of two species. The Pomegranate (Punica gr ana- 

 turn) indigenous to the Levant and now extensively cultivated is 

 of chief interest. The plants are small trees, the young twigs of 

 which are 4-angled and frequently thorn-like. The leaves are 

 opposite, ovate-lanceolate, entire and short-petiolate. The torus, 

 calyx and corolla are scarlet, and the gynsecium consists of two 

 whorls of carpels. The fruit is an inferior edible berry with a hard 

 pericarp or rind. The pulpy portion is formed from the outer 

 layer of the seed-coat. The bark of the root and stem is used in 

 medicine (see Granatum, Vol. II). The rind of the fruit is used as 

 an astringent because of the tannin which it contains. It does not 

 appear, however, to contain the alkaloids found in the official bark. 



e. FAMILY LECYTHIDACE^E. The plants are mostly 

 shrubs and trees indigenous to the Tropics. They are of chief 

 interest on account of the BRAZIL-NUT (Fig. 342) obtained from 

 Bertholletia excclsa, and the Sapucaya-nut obtained from the 

 Monkey-pot tree (one or more species of Lecythis), both genera 

 of South America. The seeds (so-called nuts) are rich in oil 

 and proteins and are edible. The fruit of Careya arborea is drupa- 

 ceous and is also edible, the seeds being considered, however, 

 to be poisonous. Bitter narcotic or poisonous principles are also 

 found in the fruit of Planchonia valida of the Molucca Islands and 

 the seeds of a number of species of Lecythis. The fruits and roots 

 of a number of species of Barringtonia are used in China and Java 

 to stupefy fish. The pericarp of the fruit of Fcctida moschata 

 of Guiana contains considerable quantities of an ethereal oil. The 

 flowers of Grias cauliflora of the Antilles are used like tea. A 

 cooling drink is made from the sarcocarp of Couroupita guianensis 

 of the West Indies and Guiana 



