A DAY AT KEW GARDENS. 



Europe for this purpose. — Here is Cassava bread; Tapioca; Castor oil; Croton 

 oil, &c. &c., all going to show how much we are indebted to vegetables. — Nettles, 

 worthless as they are proverbially considered, yield a useful fibre, and some are 

 neither unwholesome nor unpleasant food. — Milk of the Cow-tree, used by the 

 natives of Venezuela, and given to the children as we do cow's-milk. — Fruit and 

 bark of the Upas tree, and concrete juice of the same ; inhabiting the malarious 

 regions of Java, this tree has a worse name than it deserves. — Jack; the gigantic 

 fruit of Artocarpus integrifolia ; the largest edible fruit that is brought to table; 

 some have been known to weigh 80 lbs. ; the odor is disagreeable, but the fruit 

 good. — Those are shirts made out of the bark of two sorts of Tururi, one an 



Artocarpea, the other a Fig, from the Amazon All the products of the Willow, 



plaiting, baskets, &c. &c. — Refuse Tan, from oak bark ; made into cakes for fuel 

 in Britanny. — Galls of various kinds from oaks ; among them the large Mecca or 

 Bussorah galls, called also Apples of Sodom, Dead Sea Apples; used in the East 

 for dyeing, and more esteemed than the common nutgalls which are occasioned by 

 the puncture of the Cynips gallae tinctorite on the Quercus infectoria. When on 

 the trees, the Mecca galls formed by the Cynips insana on the same oak, are of a 

 rich purple, and varnished over with a soft substance of the consistence of honey, 

 shining with a most brilliant lustre in the sun, which makes them appear like a 

 most delicious and tempting fruit. They are very astringent and scarcely bitter. 

 The far-famed Mad-apples, Mala insana, or Apples of Sodom, Poma Sodomitia 

 of Josephus aud other writers ; "the fruit which never comes to ripeness" of the 

 Book of Wisdom, 



" Which grew 

 Near to the bituminous lake where Sodom flamed," 



and which, though beautiful to the eye, yet crumbles at the touch to dust and 

 bitter ashes ; it was supposed by some to be the egg-plant of our gardens, by others 

 to be a species of cotton tree, but by Lambert to be the galls here noticed. — You 

 see there candles made from a tallow or oil from acorns in New Grenada (may 

 they give liffld to Kinney and Walker). — Of the coniferse we cannot enter into an 

 enumeration; the magnificent collection of Pine-cones occupying a large table- 

 cabinet are of great value to nurserymen and planters, who compare them with 

 cones they receive from abroad, and thus ascertain their proper names. The spe- 

 cimens of the cones of Auracarias and Dammars of the southern hemisphere are 

 particularly valuable. Nor can we enter upon the products of the order Palma- 

 cece, or Palm family; their several uses would require a volume to describe — 



" The Indian nut alone 

 Is clothing, meat and trencher, drink and pan, 

 Boat, cable, sail and needle, all in one." 



They yield timber, fil)re of every variety, oil, wax, starch, sugar, daily food, mild 

 I and intoxicating drink; it is rather difficult to say what they do not yield; the 

 collection is wonderful, and if not complete, additions are constantly receiv 



