UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 95 



A very important object in our selection consists in plants which 

 possess medicinal, technical, economical, commercial, and the like 

 properties and utilities. Of vital interest among primeval forest 

 trees, are, among others, the Teak, various stately Laurinese, the 

 light and aromatic woods used in the manufacture »f cigars and 

 pencils, the different sorts of Sappan, Brazil, Brazilet, and St. 

 Martha woods, or the red, yellow, and white Sanders (Cajsalpinia, 

 Santalum, Pterocarpus), or the species of Madura, the sources of 

 the divers Yellow woods (Fustic) of North and South America, the 

 species of Myrospermum, Copaifera, Icica, and Hymenasa, which 

 produce the Peruvian Balsam, the Copaiva oil, the Elemi and 

 Copal resins, the little known, precious, hard and dark-coloured 

 woods of the Palisander (i. e. Palo santo, a leguminous tree), the 

 American Rose and Satin woods. These magnificent trees are 

 little known, and either totally wanting in our botanic gardens, or 

 they only exist there in a very stinted and poor condition. But 

 even smaller trees or shrubs, and other perennials of the above 

 class, are rarely or not at all seen in our gardens : for instance, the 

 various Cassife yielding senna leaves, the plant yielding the ringed, 

 white, and striped Ipecacuanha, the different gum plants of 

 Arabia, the incense-producing plants of the East Indies and 

 Arabia, the numerous Indigoferae, from which the dye is manu- 

 factured in different countries, the genuine plants of the East 

 Indies producing gambir, kino, and catechu, the Molucca Sago 

 Palm (Metroxylon) reproducing itself from the root ; besides many 

 others. It is only in later times that, thanks to the zealous 

 labours of Weddell, several species of Cinchona have been brought 

 into cultivation, and it is in England only that they have been 

 so fortunate as to obtain flowers, and even fruit, of some of the 

 noblest tropical fruit-trees, such as Mangifera indica, Garcinia 

 Mangostana, Averrhoa Carambola, and Bilimbi, Euphoria, 

 Nephelium, and many delicious large-fruited Myrtacea), (Psidium, 

 Eugenia, Jambosa). Still even among perennial and annual 

 useful plants are still absent from our glass-houses, notwith- 

 standing our vastly improved intercourse with distant parts of 

 the globe. We still miss many Cucurbitacese (among these 

 the remarkable Sechium edule), the esculent Oxalis and Tro- 

 paeolum species from Chili, various vegetables of tropical 

 countries, also oil-plants, and even their different cereals, such 

 as the maize of Paraguay with the seeds enveloped in the 

 large covering (Pinsingalo of Buenos Ayres, Zea Mais tunicata, 

 St. Hil., Zea cryptosperma Bonafous), or the small-seeded sort 



