68 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. SAPINDACEZ. 
Sapindus contains a detersive principle which causes the pulp of the fruit, and to a lesser degree 
the root, to lather freely in water, making them valuable as substitutes for soap. The fruit of the West 
Indian and Floridian |S. Saponaria is used by the negroes of the West Indies for washing linen, which, 
however, it is said to injure and soon destroy.’ The fruit of several of the South American species is 
employed for the same purpose. Sapindus MJukorossi,’ a widely distributed tree in southern and 
eastern continental Asia, and now naturalized in Japan, is generally cultivated in northern and central 
India for the fleshy pulp of the fruit; it is an mmportant article of trade in the Punjab and northwest 
provinces, and is preferred to soap for washing flannels and Cashmere shawls, and is also used for wash- 
ing silk.’ In India the leaves of this tree serve as fodder for cattle, and in China the roasted fruit is 
occasionally eaten and the seeds are employed medicinally.* 8S. trifoliatus,’ a native of southern India, 
is cultivated in Bengal. The fruit of Sapindus possesses a terebinthine and disagreeable flavor ; the 
bark is bitter and astringent, and has been used as a tonic; and the pulverized seeds are said to poison 
fish. The seeds of several of the species are strung to form chaplets and bracelets, and are sometimes 
used for buttons.’ 
The generic name, formed from Sapo and Indus, refers to the detersive properties and use of the 
first species known to botanists, the Sapindus Saponaria of the West Indies; it was established by 
Tournefort® and afterwards adopted by Linnzus. 
southern India. Cleghorn states that its cultivation in favorable 
situations yields a larger return than that of any other fruit-tree. 
(Forests and Gardens of Southern India, 239.) 
® Nieremberg, Hist. Nat. 368. — Sloane, /. c. — Macfadyen, I. c. 
1 Oviedo, Hist. Nat. Gen. Ind. lib. 9, cap. 5.— Sloane, Nat. Hist. 
Jam. ii. 132. — Macfadyen, Fl. Jam. 159. — Radlkofer, Sitz. Akad. 
Miinch. 1878, 234. 
2 Gertner, Fruct. i. 341, t. 70. — De Candolle, Prodr. i. 609. — 
Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. i. 683. — Franchet & Savatier, Enum. Pl. 
Jap. i. 86. — Forbes & Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Soc. xxiii. 139. 
8 Brandis, Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 106. 
4 Smith, Contrib. Mat. Med. China, 199. 
5 Linneus, Spec. 367. — Hooker f. J. c. 682. 
It is this species which is seen about the villages all through 
7 «The Stone is made Use of for Buttons, and therefore the Ber- 
ries are gather’d and the Stones sent into Europe in great Quanti- 
ties. The Stone makes better Beads to be used in Prayers than 
Ebony.” (Sloane, J. c.) 
8 Inst. 659, t. 440. 
