348 BOTANY. 



Polygonum (NEAR amphibium.) Society Isles ; 

 native name tamori or titorea.- Sandwich Isles. 



Sapindus saponaria. Soap-berry Tree. We saw 

 this species only at Santa Christina, Marquesas, where 

 it is called koku. Its leaves are large and pinnated ; 

 flowers small, inconspicuous, and borne in large clusters 

 or panicles. The blossoms are succeeded by globular 

 berries, about the size of a large cherry ; brown-yellow 

 when ripe ; wrinkled and veined on their surface ; and 

 containing, within a thick pulp, a single hard, round 

 and black seed. The juice of the fruit is viscid, and 

 has a saccharine odour, but an intensely bitter taste. 

 It is employed by the natives as an ingredient in the 

 turmeric cosmetic they smear over their persons, and it 

 causes that dye to adhere to the skin. The timber the 

 tree affords is heavy but coarse-grained ; it is white 

 until exposed to the air, when it assumes a fine yellow 

 colour, which cannot be imparted to water. It is a 

 lofty tree, and so abundant that it is usually supplied 

 to ships for fire-wood. 



Sapindus Sp. An under-shrub ; leaves woolly, ab- 

 ruptly pinnated ; flowers white. 

 Island of Timor. 



ENNEANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 



Cassyta filiformls. This is a parasitic creeper, 

 thickly entwined around bushes or ferns. Its stalks 

 are slender, and destitute of leaves; the flowers are 

 small, of a green-yellow colour, and produce globular 

 green berries. 



The economy of this plant is like that of the dodder, 

 (cuscuta,} the root and radical stems decaying and 



