MORE^E. 275 



■was that commonly selected for making the images of Priapus, -nhieh tlic Romans 

 placed in their gardens to friglitcn birds and thieves, as is so humorously alluded to 

 by Horace when relating the diseomtiture of Canidia and her accomplice Sagana — 



" Olim truncus cram tkulnus, inutile lignum : 

 Cum faber, incertus scamnum faceretnc I'riapum, 

 Maluit esse deum. Deus inde ego furum aviumquo 

 Maxima formido." — Satires, Lib. I. 8. 



A double entendre attaching to the word fictm was well known to the Romans, and 

 is embodied in the GGth epigram of Martial, Lib. i. ' de genere et declinatinne jhux^ 

 and Lib. vi. cpig. 49, and xii. 33, which I need not more particularly quote. That 

 the fig held a high place among fruits in tlic estimation of the Greeks in tlie time 

 of Homer may be inferred from its being one of the fruits which adonu'd the garden 

 of Alcinous, and it was also a favourite in Ithaca, for whilst Laertes only gave his 

 little son 10 apple-trees' and 13 pears, he gave him no less than 40 fig-trees and 

 50 vines. 



DoKSTENiA, Plumier. 



Fhwers monoecious, numerous, sessile, males and females mixed, on a peltate 

 receptacle. Periantlis tubular, united, 2-4-toothed. Stamenn 2, filaments basally 

 confluent with the perianth. Orartj immersed in the spongy-fleshy receptacle, some- 

 times stalked. Sti/le lateral 2-eleft, or simple and short. Seeds on ripening, clastically 

 ejected from the pericarp. 



D. Griffiihiaxa, Kz. E.S. Tcnasseiim. 



Flowers immersed in the cavities of the fleshy receptacle. Fruit compound, 

 dimoqthous, velvety. 



XXX Male and female J/uirers sr-jnirci/e, the latter solitary within a many-hracted 

 involucre. 



Antiaris, LeachtnauU. 



Flowers monoecious. Males densely packed within a manybracted involucre, 

 opening at length into an open convex receptacle. Perianth 4- (rai-ely 3-)cleft. 

 Female fowers solitary without perianth. Fruit a. drupe, the pericarj) fornu'd of the 

 enlarged flcsliy involucre. Albumen none. Trees or shrubs with entire distichous 

 leaves abounding in milky juice. 



A. ToxiCAEiA, Lcsch. E.T. Eastern Slopes of the Pegu Range. Tenasserim. 



A. innocua, Bl. 

 A. succidora, Dal?;. 



Hmi-a-sait (Kurz). 



Drupes pear-shaped, thick-pcdunclc^d, scarlet. 



This is the renowned ' Ujiastree' of Java. It exudes a poisonous white resin, 

 used to poison arrows with. The inner bark or liber removed entire is used for sacks 

 in some parts of India. For this, a branch is selected of the reciuired diameter and 

 sawn off. It is now steeped in water and the ' liber' loosened by beating with clubs, 

 and when quite detached from the wood, it is turned back and stript off like a glove, 

 a thin disk alone being retaiiied and sawn off, to serve as a bottom for the sack, or the 

 end is sewn together. In the Wynaad those sacks are in common use among the 

 Cooroombars to hold rice. 



+ I Filaments infexed in bud. 

 X Flowers in dense heads or spikes. 



RitoussoxKTiA, Vcntenat. 

 Flowers dioecious, males in dense bracted elongate spikes, females in globular 



Suvfty Ttfi/TriKovTa." — Oil. xxiv. 3-1*2. 



