096 AMYRIDACEjE. 



it has diuretic and excitant properties. Pistacia Lentiscus, a native of 

 the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean, furnishes the concrete 

 resinous exudation called Mastiche or Mastic. It is a bush of about 

 10 or 12 feet in height, which is cultivated abundantly in the island 

 of Chios. Mastic is used as a masticatory for consolidating the gums 

 and cleansing the teeth. It has also been employed as an antispas- 

 modic, and it enters into the composition of varnishes. Rhus Toxico- 

 dendron. Poison -oak, is a shrub found in Canada and the United 

 States, the leaves of which have been used as stimulants in cases of 

 palsy. Like the other species of this genus, it yields an acrid milky 

 juice, which becomes black on exposure to the air. Rhus radicans, 

 Poison-ivy, or Poison-vine, is probably another name of the same 

 species. Rhus venenata, Poison-sumach, or Poison-elder, has acrid, 

 poisonous properties, and contact with it, in some instances, gives rise 

 to inflammation of the skin. Cases are related of persons who are 

 peculiarly liable to be thus affected, and in whom the irritation caused 

 by the juice of the poisonous species of Rhus is very great, and even 

 alarming. Rhus coriaria, R. typhina, and R. glabra are used for tan- 

 ning, and their fruit is acid. Rhus Cotinus is called Arbre a perruque 

 in France, on account of the hairy appearance presented by its abortive 

 pedicels. Many of the plants in this order furnish varnishes and 

 marking ink. Semecarpus Anacardium, commonly called the Marking- 

 nut tree, supplies the Sylhet varnish, while Melanorrhoea usitatissima 

 furnishes that of Martaban. Stagmaria verniciflua is the source of the 

 hard black varnish called Japan Lacquer. The leaves of many of the 

 species of Schinus, as S. Molle, when broken and thrown on the sur- 

 face of water, send out a resinous matter with great force, so as to cause 

 a sort of spontaneous motion by the recoil. Although a resinous 

 principle pervades the plants of this order, yet in some cases it is not 

 developed in the fruit, which becomes eatable. Of this an illustration 

 is furnished by the Mango, the produce of Mangifera indica. The 

 Hog-plums of the West Indies are furnished by various species of 

 Spondias, as S. purpurea and Mombin. 



844. Order 66. Amyridacete, the Amyris Family. (Polypet. 

 Perigyn.) Flowers usually bisexual, sometimes unisexual by abortion. 

 Calyx persistent, regular or nearly so, with 2 to 5 divisions. Petals 

 3-5, inserted at the base of the calyx; aestivation valvate or imbricated. 

 Stamens twice or four tunes as many as the petals, perigynous. Disk 

 covering the base of the calyx often in a ring-like manner. Ovary 

 superior, sessile 1-5-celled; ovules in pairs, anatropal, pendulous or 

 suspended ; style 1 or none ; stigma simple or lobed, sometimes capi- 

 tate. Fruit dry, 1-5-celled, indehiscent, or its epicarp splitting into 

 valves. Seeds solitary, exalbuminous, with a superior radicle next 

 the hilum, and cotyledons, which are fleshy or wrinkled. Trees or 

 shrubs, abounding in resin, with opposite or alternate compound leaves, 



