114 ^^^ PLANT WORLD. 



tracted into grotesque resemblances of the flexed limbs of a corpulent 

 human being. These huge branches often terminate suddenly in a 

 few short twigs, covered with a profusion of red flowers, reminding 

 one of the proboscis of an elephant holding a nosegay. The resem- 

 blance is heightened by the peculiar brown, skin-like epidermis that 

 forms the outer bark, which splits and peels off annually, accommo- 

 dating the increase of growth. This epidermis, when removed, ex- 

 poses the smooth, greenish-colored surface of the spongy inner bark, 

 which is from one to two inches in thickness. When this bark is cut 

 through a milky juice exudes, which soon hardens into a compact 

 mass of gum and resin. The quantity furnished from a single cut is 

 considerable. Whether the exuded matter be of any value I have 

 had no means of testing as yet; but as the tree belongs to a nati;ral 

 order that furnishes our most valuable and expensive gum-resinous 

 products, it is not improbable that it may prove worthy of attention 

 in that regard. The wood is light and porous and soon decays, and is 

 not likely to be of any economical utility. 



" The branches of the larger trees often shoot out to a horizontal 

 distance of twenty feet from the trunk, thus covering an area of forty 

 feet in diameter. Smaller subordinate limbs spring upward from the 

 upper side of the large boughs, and in this way give a neat oval ap- 

 pearance to the outline of the tree. When loaded with its bright red 

 flowers the effect is strikingly beautiful, particularly when hundreds 

 of the trees stand near each other, intertwining their huge boughs, 

 and forbidding ingress to the mysterious space they cover and protect. 

 The leaves are minute, and fall off before the blooms are fairly 

 developed. The young tree looks a good deal like a huge radish pro- 

 truding from the ground, with but a single root and a few twig-like 

 branches expanding from the top. 



"On the mountain sides, from a little above the seashore to an 

 elevation of fifteen hundred feet, these trees grow scatteringly, singly 

 and in small clumps ; but in the narrow vales of the ravines they some- 

 times form groves of several acres in extent, presenting the impene- 

 trable and compact form above described. From June till August 

 seems to be their blooming season." 



The Elephant Tree belongs to the Cashew family {Atiacardiacecs) 

 and is closely allied to the genus Rhus (Sumach) — so closely in fact 

 that it was for many years supposed to belong to it.. It differs from 

 Rhus in its valvate sepals, accrescent petals, thin-walled fruit, and 

 above all in its habit. The leaves are one to three inches long, and com- 

 posed of 1-7 pairs of entire or lobed leaflets onh^ one or two lines in 

 length. The flowers are borne in immense compound panicles, and 

 when in full bloom completely cover the, at that time, leafless tree. 



