314 EUPEORBIAOEM 



yellow, each with three bracts ; female flowers beneath the 

 male, two on each raceme, with the calyx leaflets pinnatifidt 

 The plant stings like the nettle. For a description of its 

 varieties, the reader is referred to the Flora of British India. 



RXCJECARIA AGALLOCHA, Linn. 



Fig.— Wighf Ic, t 1865 B; Bheede, Eort Mai v., t. 45. 

 Blinding tree. Tiger's milk tree {Eng.), Arbre aveuglant {Fr.). 



Hab. — Tidal forests of India, The juice and cork. 



Vernacular. — Gaoura, Uguru, Gangwa, Geria {Beng*), Chilla 

 {Teh), Haro {Can.\ Geva, PhungaH, Hura (ilfan), TiUai-cheddi 

 {Tarn.). 



History, Uses, &C. — This tree was named il^«//oc^« by 

 the old botanists, from a supposition that a kind of Aloe-wooa 

 was yielded by it ; but Loureiro, speaking of E* cocMn-cMnensis, 

 remarks, *'nec agallochum, quamvis spurium, in ilia inveneri. 

 The wood is white, soft, and spongy, and has no aromatic pro- 

 perties. All parts of the tree abound in an acrid milky juice, 

 which causes intense pain if it gets into the eyes; this juice is 

 said to be used in Australia and New Guinea to cure ulcers, 

 leprosy, &c. If collected it hardens into a kind of caoutchouc, 

 a grain or two of which is used by the boatmen on the Western 

 Coast of India as a purgative. Ainslie (ii., 438) states that a 

 decoction of the leaves is occasionally given by Hindu doctors 

 in epilepsy, in the quantity of a quarter of a teacupful twice 

 daily. This decoction is also used as an application to ulcers. 



Smith {Econ. Diet., 5) states that in Fiji the plant is employed 

 for the cure of leprosy, its mode of application being very 

 singular. The body of the patient is first rubbed with the green 

 leaves ; he is then placed in a small room and bound hand and 

 foot, and a small fire is made of pieces of the wood, from which 

 rises a thick smoke ; the patient is suspended over this fire, and 

 remains for some hours in the midst of the poisonous smoke^ 

 enduring the most agonising torture and often fainting. When 

 thoroughly smoked, he is removed, and the slime is scraped 



