SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
68 BORRAGINACES. 
species occur within the territory of the United States; two of these are small trees and two are shrubs, 
Cordia globosa,! a West Indian and Central American plant which reaches the keys of southern 
Florida, and Cordia podocephala? of the Rio Grande valley. 
The fruit of several of the species of Cordia is edible ; the most valued are those of Cordia Myza, 
a native of tropical Asia and Australia, and for centuries cultivated in the countries bordering the Red 
Sea, and of Cordia vestitat and Cordia Rothii® of India. Cordia subcordata® of Malaya, northern 
Australia, and the Pacific Islands produces handsome brown streaked wood with the smell of musk, and 
is often planted as a shade-tree. In the West Indies the wood of Cordia Gerascanthus,' a large and 
stately tree, is valued in construction; the young stems are used for the hoops of sugar hogsheads, 
and oil is extracted from the fruit;* and in Brazil the light and fragrant wood of Cordia alliodora°® 
3 
is employed for the interior finish of houses.” 
108. — Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. ii. 914; Suppl. 244. — Fresenius, 
Martius Fl. Brasil. viii. 3. —Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 477 ; Cat. 
Pl. Cub. 208.— Bentham, Fl. Austral. iv. 385. — Kurz, Forest Fi. 
Brit. Burm. ii. 206.— Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. ii. 366.— 
C. B. Clarke, Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iv. 136. — Forbes & Hems- 
ley, Jour. Linn. Soc. xxvi. 143.— Robinson, Proc. Am. Acad. xxvi. 
169. — Baker, Kew Bull. Miscellaneous Information, Jan., 1894, 26. 
1 Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Spec. iii. 76 
(1818). — Kunth, Syn. Pl. 4quin. ii. 198. — Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. 
Ind. 481. — Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Am. ii. pt. i. 180. — Hemsley, J. c. 367. 
Varronia bullata, Linnzus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 916 (in part) 
(1759). 
Varronia globosa, Jacquin, Enum. Pl. Carib. 14 (1760) ; Hist. 
Stirp. Am. 41.— Linneus, Spec. ed. 2, 276. — Willdenow, Spec. 
i. pt. ii. 1080. 
Cordia bullata, De Candolle, Prodr. ix. 496 (1845). — Chap- 
man, FT. 329. 
2 Torrey, Bot. Mex. Bound. Surv. 135 (1859). —Gray, 0. c.— 
Hemsley, J. c. 369.—Coulter, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. ii. 283 
(Man. Pl. W. Texas). 
8 Linnzus, Spec. 190 (1753). — De Candolle, J. c. 479. — Delile, 
Fl. d’Egypte, 47, t. 19, £. 1, 2. — Miquel, 1. c. ii. 915. — Bentham, 
l. c. 386. — Boissier, Fl. Orient. iv. 124. —C. B. Clarke, J. c. 
Cordia Sebestena, Forskal, Fl. 4igypt-Arab. p. lxiii. (not Lin- 
nus) (1775). 
Cordia dichotoma, Forster, Fl. Ins. Austr. Prodr. No. 110 
(1786). — R. Brown, Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. 498. 
Sebestena officinalis, Gertner, Fruct. i. 364, t. 76 (1788). 
Cordia officinalis, Lamarck, Ill. i. 420, t. 96, f. 3 (1791). 
Cordia Africana, Lamarck, l. c. (1791). 
Cordia Indica, Lamarck, J. c. 422 (1791) ; Dict. vii. 49.— De 
Candolle, 7. c. 500. 
Cordia paniculata, Roth, Nov. Pl. Spec. 125 (1821). — De Can- 
dolle, J. c. 482. 
Ehretia glabra, Roth, 1. c. 127 (1821). 
Cordia latifolia, Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. ii. 330 (1824).— De Can- 
dolle, J. c. 478. 
Bourreria glabra, Don, Gen. Syst. iv. 390 (1838). 
Cordia Brownii, De Candolle, J. c. 499 (1845). 
Cordia Myzxa is distributed from tropical India and Ceylon to 
the Philippine Islands and northern Australia ; and through culti- 
vation has been established in southern Persia, Arabia, Palestine, 
The dried fruits of this tree 
are the smaller sebestens of commerce, valued by the ancients for 
and Egypt from very early times. 
their soothing and laxative properties, and introduced by the Arabs 
into the pharmacopeia. Once esteemed by European physicians in 
the treatment of bronchial and pulmonary affections, sebestens are 
now only used medicinally in the Kast. From the seeds a powder 
is made which in India is believed to be an infallible cure for ring- 
worm; the bark is used in astringent gargles, and the root is 
considered laxative (Endlicher, Enchirid. Bot. 319. — Honigberger, 
Mat. Med. 343. — Guibourt, Hist. Drog. ed. 7, ii. 512.— Balfour, 
Cyclopedia of India, ed. 3, i. 812 ; iii. 559). The pulp, which is sweet 
and exceedingly mucilaginous, is sometimes eaten and is employed 
to trap birds. The young fruit is cooked and eaten as a vegetable, 
or is pickled ; and from the fruit a glue was made in Egypt and 
Arabia, which was once an article of export to Europe. (See Fors- 
kal, J. c. p. xxiii. — Olivier, Voyage dans l’Empire Othoman, ii. 
177.) 
The wood is soft and strong, and is used in India in boatbuilding, 
for gun-stocks, the handles of agricultural implements, and as fuel. 
Ropes are made from the bark, and the fibre is used in calking 
boats. The leaves serve for plates and for the wrappers of che- 
roots (Brandis, Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 336). 
* Hooker f. Jour. Linn. Soc. ii. 128 (1858). — Brandis, 1. c. 338. — 
C. B. Clarke, 7. c. 139. 
Gynaion vestitum, A. de Candolle, J. c. 468 (1845). 
5 Roemer & Schultes, Syst. iv. 798 (1819). — De Candolle, J. c. 
480. — Brandis, l. c. 
Cordia reticulata, Roth, J. c. 124 (not Vahl) (1821). 
Cordia angustifolia, Roxburgh, J. c. 338 (not Roemer & Schultes) 
(1824). 
Cordia subopposita, De Candolle, J. v. 480 (1845). 
6 Lamarck, Jil. i. 421 (1791). — Miquel, /. c. 914. — De Candolle, 
i. c. 477. — Seemann, Fl. Vit. 168, t. 34.— Mann, Proc. Am. Acad. 
vii. 194. — Nadeaud, Enum. Pl. Tahiti, 57. — Bentham, J. c. 385. — 
Kurz, l. c. 209. —C. B. Clarke, l. c. 140. — Hillebrand, Fl. Haw. 
Is. 321. — Hemsley, Bot. Challenger Exped. i pt. iii. 167. 
Cordia Sebestena, Forster, 1. c. No. 108 (not Linnzus) (1786). 
Cordia orientalis, R. Brown, 1. c. 498 (1810). 
Cordia hexandra, Roemer & Schultes, /. c. 799 (1819). 
Cordia campanulata, Roxburgh, J. c. 336 (1824). 
Cordia Rhumphii, Blume, Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 843 (1825). 
7 Jacquin, Hist. Stirp. Am. 43, t. 175, f. 16 (1763). — Lamarck, 
Ll. c. t. 96, £. 2.— Swartz, Obs. 86.— Lunan, Hort. Jam. ii. 182. — 
Roemer & Schultes, J. c. 450. — Grisebach, J. c. 478. 
8 Browne, Nat. Hist. Jam. 170, t. 29, £. 3. — Barham, Hort. 
Amer. 57. 
® De Candolle, J. c. 472 (1845). — Fresenius, /. c. 3. 
Cerdana alliodora, Ruiz & Pavon, Fl. Peruv. ii. 47, t. 184 (1799). 
Cordia Cerdana, Roemer & Schultes, J. c. 467 (1819). 
10 This tree, the Louro of the Brazilians, is said to grow so rap- 
idly that seedling plants can in eight years produce trunks large 
enough to furnish saw-logs. The dust made by sawing the wood 
