552 EUPHORBIACE.E. 



ous ; but, if boiled with meat and seasoned, it makes an 

 excellent soup, which is wholesome and nutritious. The 

 heat of the sun even is sufficient to dissipate the noxious 

 properties ; for, if it be sliced and exposed for some 

 hours to the direct rays of the sun, cattle may eat it 

 with perfect safety. The roots are sometimes eaten by 

 the Indians, simply roasted, without being previously 

 submitted to the process of grating and expressing the 

 juice. They also use the juice for poisoning their arrows, 

 and were acquainted with the art of converting it into 

 an intoxicating liquid before they were visited by 

 Europeans. By washing the pulp in water and suffering 

 the latter to stand, a sediment of starch is produced, 

 which, under the name of tapioca, is extensively im- 

 ported into Europe, where it is used for all the purposes 

 to which arrow-root and sago are applied. It is light, 

 digestible, and nourishing, so much so, indeed, that 

 half a pound a day is said to be sufficient to support a 

 healthy man. Caoutchouc, or India-rubber, is a well- 

 known elastic gum, furnished in greater or less abundance 

 by many plants of this order, but especially by a South 

 American tree, Siphonia or Hevea eldstica, 



The fragrant aromatic bark called cascarilla is pro- 

 duced by a shrub belonging to this order, Croton Eku- 

 theria, a native of the Bahamas, and by other species of 

 Croton indigenous to the West Indies and South Ame- 

 rica. Croton oil is the product of Croton Tiglium, and 

 is so violent a medicine, as to be rarely administered 

 until all other remedies have failed. Castor-oil is ex- 

 pressed from the seeds of Ricinus communis, an African 

 tree, frequently to be met with in English gardens under 

 the name of Palma-Christi, where, however, it only 

 attains the rank of an annual herbaceous plant. The 

 Box is the only British tree belonging to this Order, of 

 the poisonous properties of which it partakes, though 

 to a limited extent. In some parts of Persia it is very 

 abundant ; and in these districts it is found impossible 

 to keep camels, as the animals are very fond of browsing 



