PHYSIOLOGY OF THE RED MANGROVE. 669 



its use as a fuel, as Labat and Sloan. But the most general use out- 

 side of its employment in tanning leather was in medicine. Abou 

 '1 Abbas says that in Arabia it was used in making lotions for sore 

 mouth and as styptic, the astringent property of the tannic acid 

 being doubtless very effective in its use as a drug. Van Reede gives 

 it as a drug indicated in diabetes and Ray says the Indians used it 

 as a poultice for a fish bite with good results. Sloan recounts its 

 employment as a dye for clothes and the foliage as a green manure 

 or fertilizer for soil. He likewise gives two other and rather amus- 

 ing remedies, when considered from a pharmacological standpoint, 

 for he says that " mixed with Oyle like Dirt it is good against 

 Weariness " and with milk or fresh butter " outwardly applyd " 

 '■ helps them who are diseased in their livers." The most peculiar, 

 however, of all these quaint uses of ancient times is that attributed 

 by Plutarch to the natives of Arabia, where he says the " ana- 

 campserotes " were used in making love philters and potions, and 

 intimates a belief in their having an effect as an aphrodisiac. 



At a much later period Arnott^°'* made the observation that the 

 natives of the West Indies used the fruits of the mangrove to make 

 a light wine. This, however, was only reported to him by travel- 

 lers from the West Indies. The same use is mentioned by Le Maut 

 and Decaisne^'^^ as prevalent in the West Indies. In the recent 

 paper by Crossland (155, loc. cif.) he notes the fact that the Arabs 

 of Zanzibar use the mangrove wood extensively in the building of 

 their houses and furniture, since they have learned that it is the 

 only wood which is so hard and perhaps contains some unpleasant 

 substance, so that the termites will not chew into it. 



Dr. A. G. Mayer has told the writer that he has observed the 

 natives of Tahiti and other South Sea Islands using the red extract 

 from the cortex regions in making a dye, while Schimper, in Engler 

 and Prantl, records the observance of the custom of these same 

 natives and those of the Malay Archipelago of using the prop roots 

 for making bows. 



Until comparatively recent times there was practised in the 

 Florida Keys and to some extent still in Cuba, Porto Rico and other 



164 Arnott, G. A. W., Proc. Linn. Soc, 1869, 101-102. 



165 Le Maut, E., et Decaisne, J., Traite de Botanique General, 1876, p. 419. 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, VOL. LVL RR, JANUARY II, I918. 



