694 



H IP 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



II I P 



gumes pedunculated, straight; spike oblong, terminating; 

 stem suffruticose, four feet high, upright, round ; leaves ovate, 

 entire, smooth, ternate, the middle leaflet larger; flowers 

 purple. Native of Cochin-china. It has not yet been intro- 

 duced into the gardens of Europe. 



Hippomane ; a genus of the class Monoecia, order Mon- 

 adelphia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Male Flowers, in a 

 terminating ament. Calix: perianth one-leafed, roundish, 

 bellying, with the mouth converging, emarginate. Corolla : 

 none. Stamina: filamenta single, h'liform, twice as long as 

 the calix; antherse four, roundish, fixed crosswise to the 

 sides of the filamentum towards the tip. Female Flower, 

 terminating, solitary, in the same plant. Calix: perianth 

 three-leaved, withering; leaflets roundish, concave, blunt, 

 converging. Corolla: none. Pistil: germen ovate, large; 

 style very short ; stigma slightly seven-cleft, sharp, reflex. 

 Pericarp : drupe globular, very large, one-celled, crowned 

 with the permanent stigmas ; or a tricoccous capsule. Seed : 

 nut woody, irregular, acuminate, excavated with little pits 

 and apophyses, seven-celled, seven-valved ; kernels solitary, 

 roundish. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Male Ament. Perianth: 

 bifid. Corolla: none. Female. Perianth: trifid. Corolla: 

 none. Stigma : three-parted. Drupe, or Capsule : three- 

 grained. These plants can never be expected to rise to any 

 great height in Europe, though in the stoves they may be 

 easily raised from good seeds. They must be sown upon a 

 hot-bed, and when the plants come up, they should be each 

 planted in a small separate pot filled with light sandy earth, 

 and plunged into a good bed of tanners' bark. They require 

 the same treatment as other tender plants ; but must not 

 have much wet, for they abound with an acrid milky juice, 

 and it is certain that most plants which do, are soon killed 

 by much moisture. These plants must be removed into the 

 stove and plunged into the tan-bed, in autumn, where they 

 may be suffered to remain in winter, giving them very little 

 water ; but plenty of air in summer, when they may be 

 watered once or twice a week : this management may raise 

 them to the height of five or six feet, and their green shining 

 leaves form a pleasing variety during winter in the stove. 

 The species are, 



1. Hippomane Mancinella; Manchineel Tree. Leaves ovate, 

 serrate, biglandular at the base; stalks half as long as the 

 leaves. The trunk is of a middling size, with a gray, even, thick, 

 milky bark, and a hard wood, which is yellowish, with gray or 

 blackish veins ; flowers in aments or spikes ; fruit a drupe, the 

 colour, size, and form of an apple, smooth, with a soft spongy 

 flesh, a sweet smell, and an insipid caustic taste. Within is a 

 nut with from three to five cells, with a single seed in each, 

 which is three-cornered, covered with a shining silvery skin, 

 and having the taste of a hazel-nut. Mr. Miller describes the 

 fruit as about the size and shape of a Golden Pippin, turning 

 yellow when ripe. The European nations have, with little 

 variation, given it the Spanish name of Mancanilla, or little 

 apple. It drops from the tree in great quantities, not rotting, 

 but drying up, and does not seem to be eaten by any animal, 

 except perhaps by a species of crab, which resorts to these 

 trees in incredible quantities, but probably rather for shelter 

 than for food. Dr. Patrick Browne informs us, that he has 

 known many people who have ignorantly eat of this fruit, 

 which they had mistaken for crab-apples : they generally 

 vomited in a short time, and continued to complain of a 

 burning heat in the mouth, throat, and stomach, for many 

 hours after. The juice of the buds of the White Cedar is 

 esteemed an antidote to this poison, and is generally used 

 with some success ; but oily mixtures and emulsions are the 

 most effectual assistants, and seldom fail to afford relief. He 



adds, that he has never known any to die by this poison, 

 though he has seen some who have eaten nine or ten of the 

 apples at a time. Long says, that though the green fruit 

 may be destructive in considerable quantities, yet small quan- 

 tities may be taken without danger, and it is too disagreeable 

 from its acrimony to excite any desire of eating it, and even, 

 when ripe is too insipid to raise any pleasure ; though goats, 

 sheep, and macaws, feed greedily upon it in that state. The 

 first accounts of this tree were very much exaggerated. It 

 was said to be dangerous to sit or lie under it, and that the 

 rain which falls from the leaves will raise blisters in the 

 skin. Professor Jacquin informs us, that he and his compa- 

 nions reposed upwards of three hours under a Manchineel- 

 tree, without receiving any injury, and that he experienced 

 rain dropping from the leaves to be perfectly innocent. Long 

 also says, that the negroes do not suffer any inconvenience 

 from drops of the juice accidentally falling on their skin when 

 felling this tree, or hacking off the limbs ; but if it chance to 

 fly into their eyes, it will give them a severe pain for several 

 hours : and Jacquin likewise acknowledges, that a drop of 

 that milky juice with which the whole tree abounds, falling 

 on any part of the hand, except the palm, will immediately 

 raise a blister. The wood of this tree is frequently of a fine 

 grain, and very beautifully clouded. It will take a fine polish, 

 and being very durable, and not subject to be eaten by the 

 worm, it is much esteemed in the West Indies for making 

 cabinets, bookcases, &c. The wood-cutters are said to make 

 a fire round the body of the tree before they venture to fell 

 it, to avoid the danger of losing their sight by the caustic 

 juice flying into their eyes. If the juice fall upon linen, it will 

 turn it black ; and when the linen is washed, it falls into holes. 

 The carpenters generally cover their faces while working at 

 this wood, for if any of the saw-dust get into their eyes, it 

 will produce an inflammation. The Indians are said to poi- 

 son their arrows with the juice of this tree; and it exudes a 

 gum which has been given medicinally instead of gum 

 guaiacum. The Manchineel-tree is common on the sandy 

 coasts of America and the West Indies, generally growing at 

 some small distance from the surf. It flowers in May, and 

 the fruit ripens in July. Jacquin says it is a lofty handsome 

 tree, with a very branching spreading head, having some- 

 thing of the air of a Pear-tree. 



2. Hippomane Biglandulosa; Gum Tree. Leaves ovate, 

 oblong, biglandular at the base. This tree is from twenty 

 to fifty feet high, with an even, brownish, ash-coloured bark ; 

 spikes terminating and lateral, clustered, rather to be called 

 aments. A single ament of male flowers, at the beginning of 

 the flowering time, springs among other small ones, flowers, 

 and fails : thick scales like glands cover the ament, commonly 

 a pair opposite to another pair, ovate, thick, pressed close, 

 adnate ; perianth from the sinus of two scales, tubular, irre- 

 gularly four-cleft, blood-red. The whole tree contains a great 

 quantity of milky juice, which becomes a resin or gum of a 

 thick sticky consistence, dirty colour, opaque, and of little or 

 no smell : this generally serves for the boiling-house lamps, 

 in every part of the country where the tree is frequent, and is 

 much used for birdlime. The wood is soft and coarse, and 

 not much esteemed ; it is used however for making hogshead 

 staves. The flowers appear in March and September. 

 Native of mountains on the continent of America, and in the 

 West India Islands : found also in New Spain. 



3. Hippomane Spinosa. Leaves subovate, tooth-spiny. 

 This is seldom more than twenty feet high. The leavei 

 greatly resemble those of the Holly; they are set with sharp 

 prickles at the end of each indenture, and are of a lucid 

 green, continuing all the year. Native of South America. 



