PLANT JUICES AND THEIR COMMERCIAL VALUES. 



By Mrs. Caroline A. Crcevcy. 



[continued.] 



GREAT families, like the Spurge, known to us by small and 

 comparatively insignificant plants, are represented in the 

 tropics by trees whose fruits and sap give to the human race 

 many important products, contributions to mechanics, the 

 arts, medicine, creating commerce and extending trade. 



From plant juices our wines and cider are made. Many very 

 harmful drinks are thus obtained. Absinthe, the favorite drink of the 

 French (they constmie millions of gallons in a single year), is made 

 from a Composite, Artemisia absinthium^ compounded with roots of 

 ArcJiangeliea officinalis^ sweet flag, dittany and anise. Adulterations 

 of tumeric, indigo and blue vitriol make the inferior qualities. It is 

 a greenish liqueur, and was introduced by French soldiers who served 

 in the Algerian war (1844-47). They were advised to mix absinthe 

 with their wine in order to prevent fever. On their return they 

 brought the habit with them, and it spread, until to day it is regarded 

 with alarm as a national evil. It acts more quickly than brandy, pro- 

 ducing at first a pleasant intoxication with hallucinations, then dis- 

 order of the stomach and nerves. The hair comes off, the complexion 

 becomes sallow and wrinkled, trembling of the limbs, idiocy and 

 death follow. Yet this vice is indulged in even by the better classes 

 of the people. At nearly all the open-air cafes of Paris, so marked a 

 feature of that and other foreign city life, one sees the green liqueur 

 being dropped, the bottle held high above the glass, the skillful 

 dropping of this drink being esteemed an accomplishment. To this 

 use of absinthe, along with other vices, is attributed the well-known 

 degeneracy of the French people. Descended from the magnificent, 

 gigantic race of Gauls, sometimes conquerors of the Romans, they 

 have become the smallest people of Europe. 



Pulque is made from the American aloe, Agave Americana. The 

 Mexicans cut into the young flower bud at night; the cavity fills 

 with a sweet juice, which is collected the next morning. It contains 

 a great deal of sugar, and after fermentation becomes a favorite bev- 

 erage with our Mexican neighbors. 



Tonga is prepared from Brugmansia sangiiinia, and drunk by 

 Peruvian Indians. It produces stupor, followed by frightful convul- 

 sions and several hours of heavy sleep. On awakening the man re- 

 lates his visions, which are held to be communications from the spirit 

 world. In small quantities it is given to children, who become excited, 



