328 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Euphorbiaceae. 
Cassava, so that they are poisonous when raw, it is so effectually separated by heat, 
as to afford an abundant and nourishing food to thousands in S. America, the West- 
Indies, and Mexico. The plant succeeds completely in India, but it is remarkable 
that it should have been made so little use of, though Sir W. Ainslie has mentioned 
making Tapioca from it when in India. This acrid and stimulant principle is combined 
with fixed oils in many of the seeds of Euphorbiacee, which are well known for their 
uses as purgative medicines, as the Castor oil plant, Ricinus communis, khiroa or cherua 
of the Arabs, aranda of the Hindoos, xray and xixs of the Greeks ; and also several 
species of Jatropha, as J. Curcas, physic-nut (H. bagh-burinda). J. glandulifera is used 
as an escharotic to remove opacities of the eye in India (Roxb.) The most active, being 
at the same time safe, and which is perhaps the most extensively used in India, and 
also considered emmenogogue, is the Croton Tiglium, Grana Molluccana and Tilli of old 
Pharmacopeeias, jumaigotta of the Hindoos, dund of the Arabs and Avicenna, for which, 
in N. India, those of C. polyandrum are substituted, and called by the same name. 
Species of Phyllanthus are considered diuretic, others of the order sudorific, and some 
emetic. The best substitutes for Ipecacuanha are said to be some species of Euphorbia, 
as E. Ipecacuanha, Gerardiana, &c.; also Pedilanthus tithymaloides. Space would fail, 
if we were merely to enumerate all those to which useful properties have been ascribed, 
but they may be seen in the Essay of M. Adrien de Jussieu, Lindley, Fée, Roxburgh, 
and Ainslie. The acrid and stimulant principle is united with essential and fragrant 
oil in some barks and woods, as in Croton Cascariila, Eluteria, and gratissimum. The 
wood-cutters of the Delta of the Ganges state, that no Agallochum is afforded by 
Excecaria Agallocha (Roxb.) <A peculiar principle (cereo-resine, Fée), called Euphor- 
bium, furfiyoon, (Gr. afirbiyoon) of the Persian works on Materia Medica, and said 
in them to be a produce of Soudan and Africa, is considered by botanists to be 
yielded by Euphorbia officinarum, Canariensis, and antiquorum. 1 doubt whether the 
last, at least the species so called in India, yields any, as in some experiments I made 
on the subject, I found the juice comparatively inert. The leaves of E.mnereifolia are 
considered purgative and deostruent (Ainslie); the root of Z. ligularia, mixed with black 
pepper, is employed for the cure of snake-bites. Some of this family are violent poisons, 
as Hippomane Mancinella, Hura crepitans, Hyenanche globosa, Excecaria Agallocha, 
Sapium aucuparium and indicum. Seeds of the latter intoxicate fish, as does the bark of 
Fluggea virosa (Roxb.), and the hairs of some species, as Zragia cannabina and involucrata, 
sting as violently as nettles. Some species yield oil useful for burning, as El@ococca 
(Dryandra, Thunb.), verrucosa, and Vernicia, the oil and varnish trees of China, 
Aleurites triloba, Ricinus communis, &c.; while Stillingia sebifera, or tallow-tree of 
China, yielding a vegetable fat, is now common about Calcutta, but it is only during 
cold weather that this substance becomes firm. (Roxb.) The most useful product 
of the family, however, and that which has lately become so important an article of 
commerce, and of great utility in a variety of arts, is Caoutchouc, so well known as India- 
rubber, and exported principally from Para. This is chiefly yielded by Siphonia elastica, 
Hevea 
