SAPINDACE Z. 369 
_ pulp of the fruit is given as an anthelmintic in small doses. _ 
_ The bark is astringent. Soap berries -are used in France for 
washing silk dyed with aniline colours. We have no record 
of the use of this fruit as a poison for human beings, doses of 70 
_ grains and more’ appear to have no injurious effect upon the 
__ System when taken as a purge. 
Description.—Berries three, united, when ripe soft, of a 
yellowish green colour, singly they are of the size of a cherry, 
somewhat reniform, with a heart-shaped scar on the attached 
side. When dry they are of the colour of a raisin, skin shri- 
velled, pulp translucent, absent on the attached side. The 
‘inner shell enclosing the seed is thin, tough and translucent 
: like parchment, except at the scar, where it is woody. Seed. 
the same shape as’ the fruit, black, smooth, except at the hilum, 
where it is tomentose, size of a large pea; on the upper part of . 
the dorsum of the seed are two shallow diverging furrows ; the 
testa is double, the outer very thick and hard, the inner mem- 
branaceous; kernel yellowish green, oily ; cotyledons unequal, 
thick, firm and fleshy, spirally incurvate. Radicle inferior, 
linear, lodged at the base of the seed, pointing to the lower 
and inner angle. The pulp of the fruit has a fruity smell; its 
taste is sweet at first, afterwards very bitter. 
in the woody stone, seed or husk. The thick cotyledons 
contain about 30 per cent. of a white fat, mi-fluid at 20° 
ee ie ae 
