32 SILVA OF NORTH AMEHICA. cappakidace^. 



root of this species has a sharp bitter taste, and was formerly used as a tonic. The flower-huds of 

 C. aphylla are used as a pickle in India ; the unripe fruit is cooked and eaten, and a bitter condiment 

 is prepared from both the ripe and the unripe fruit.^ The bark of the roots of several American species 

 contains, according to Baillon,^ exciting and epispastic properties. The fruit of C. Breynia and prob- 

 ably of C. Jamaicensis is beheved in the West Indies to be antispasmodic, and its flowers and root- 

 anthysteric and aperative. The fruit of C.frondosa and of C. pulcherrima is considered poisonous in 

 the "West Indies ; and horses and mules are kiUed, according to Martins,^ by eating the leaves of C. Yco 

 a Brazilian species. The leaves of G. DaJd and C. Mithridatica are used in Africa in the treatment of 

 snake bites.* 



The wood of two or three Indian species is hard and diu-able, and is used by the natives in the 

 construction of small houses, for agricultural implements, and in boat-building.'^ C. S€2naria is em- 

 ployed in India as a hedge-plant, for which purpose its stout branches with sharp hooked stipular spines 

 adapt it.^ 



Capparis, the classical name of C spmosa, is from the Greek xdnnapig, the name given to this 

 plant by Dioscorides, and derived from the Persian kahar, capers. 



r 



large number of persons In soutliern France and Italy, and permits 3 Sysl. Mat. Med. Brasil. 74. 



the profitable use of dry and sterile land unsuitable for otbcr crops. * Bailloii, Hist, PI. iii. 169. 



Pomet, Hist. Gen. Drog. 2i5.~ Nouv. Cours <VAgr. iii. 4U. s Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbers, 15. 



1 Brandis, Forest Fl. Ind. 14. 6 Cleghorn, Forests and Gardens, S. Ind. 211. 



= Hist. PI. iii. 1(J9. 



