34 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



EUPHORBIACEiE. 



ultimately separable, penetrated 



the summit by oblique 



filled by the f unicles of the seeds 



Seed oblono'-ovate, marked with a minute slightly elevated hilum, and on the ventral face with an 



& 



obscure raphe 



membranaceous, separabl 



the 



dark, the 



thinner, Heht 



t? 



brown. Embryo surrounded by thick fleshy albumen 

 the short erect radicle turned toward the hilum. 



tyledons flat, foliaceous, much longer than 



The wood of Hippomane, when grown in Florida, is light and soft although close-grained, and 



contains numerous evenly distributed small open ducts and many obscure medullary rays. It is dark 

 brown, with thick light brown or yellow sapwood. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 

 0.5272, a cubic foot weighing 35.97 pounds.^ 



All parts of Hippomane abound in exceedingly poisonous caustic sap which produces cutaneous 

 eruptions, and taken internally destroys the mucous membrane.^ Rain water falling on the leaves 

 becomes poisonous, and the smoke of the burning wood injures or destroys the eyes. In the Antilles 

 and on the adjacent shores of South America the Caribs employed the sap to poison their arrows.^ 



The generic name, from Innoq and [lavia^ used by the Greeks to distinguish some plant with 

 properties excitant to horses,^ was adopted for this tropical American tree by Linnseus, who discarded 

 the older Manganilla of Plumier. 



5 



The genus is represented by a single species. 



^ By many authors the wood of Hippomane is described as heavy '^ Their poyson is of such a force, that a man being stricken there- 



and hard, and as valued and much esteemed in cabinet-making ; in with dyeth within foure and twentie howers, as the Spaniards do 



Florida the trees rarely produce heartwood, and the sapwood is affirme, & in my judgment it is like there can be no stronger 



certainly too light and soft to be of any value in the arts. Of the poyson as they make it, using thereunto apples which are very faire 



authors who have described this tree, Tussac (Fl, AntilL iii. 23) ap- and red of colour, but are i* strong poyson." (Hawkins, Voyage 



pears to be the only one who has noticed the softness of the wood to the coast of Guinea and the Indies of Nova Hispania [Hakluyt, 



and its inferior quality. 



2 Peyssonel, Rec. Period. d^Obs. de Med.y de Chir, et de Pharm 



VoyageSy ed. Evans, iii. 602].) 

 "The fruit is like an apple John, and 'tis said to be one of those 



vii. 411. — Ricord-Madianna, Recherches et Experiences sur les Poi- poisons, wherewith the Indian Caniballs invenome their Arrows.'' 



(Ligon, A true and exact History of the Island of Barbados ^ 68.) 

 " Nos Caraibes se servent du lait de cet arbre pour empoisonner 



sons d^Amerique, t. 3.; N. Y. Med. Sf Phys. Jour. iii. 309, 439. — 

 Orfela & Olivier, Arch. Gen. de Med. x. 358. — Schroder, GeneesTc. 



Tijdschr. ZeemagL Gravenh. i. 229. — Rosenthal, Syn. PL Diaphor. leurs fleches ; ils font pour cela une fente dans I'dcorce, & y met- 



820. — Jackson, Med. Press Sf Circ. n. ser, xlii. 304. — Guibourt, tent le bout des fleches qui s'imbibent de la liqueur qui en sort qui 



Hist. Drog. ed. 7, ii. 345. — Eggers, Tidsskr. pop. Fremsi. Natur. est blanche comme du lait, mais plus dpaisse & plus gluante. lis 



1878, 112. — Baillon, Traite Bot. Merf. 946. — CormVui, Des Plantes laissent secher les fleches ainsi imbibdes, & lorsqu'elles font une 



Veneneuses, 186. 



Naturelle 



playe elles I'empoisonnent en meme tems." (Labat, Nouveau Voyage 



de St, Domingue, 266. — Boyer-Peyreleau, Les Antilles Fran<;aises, aux Isles de VAmirique^ i. 477.) 



ed. 2, i. 71.) 



s " Arbol 6 man§anillo, con cuya fructa los indios caribes flecheros 

 hagen la hierva con que tiran ^ pelean, la qual por la mayor parte 

 es inremediable." (Oviedo, Hist, Nat. Gen. Ind. lib. 9, cap. 12.) 



^ Wittstein, Etymol.-Bot, Handworterb, 444. 

 fi Nov. PL Am. Gen. 49. 



