HIPPOCRATEA-HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



749 



commonly known under the name of horse-chestnuts, 

 reference being obviously made to the external resem- 

 blance the fruit bears to that of the Castanets, and 

 the very bitter astringent taste, whicn renders it unfit 

 for human food. The seeds are large, and abound in 

 farinaceous matter; hence they are very nutritious, 

 and some animals devour them greedily, especially 

 after the nuts are steeped in lime water. If allowed to 

 germinate they become sweeter, and then are relished 

 by rabbits and pigs. The bark of the horse-chestnut is 

 oitter and astringent, and has long been esteemed as 

 a febrifuge. This tree, though very common in this 

 country now, was unknown in Europe three centu- 

 ries ago. Parkinson says " our Christian world had 

 first the knowledge of it from Constantinople," and, 

 as an evidence of its rarity, Clusius states, that there 

 was only one tree of it at Vienna in his time. The 

 horse-chestnut is one of our finest flowering trees, and 

 on this account is frequent in park scenery. 



Some of the pavias bear beautiful scarlet flowers, 

 and, as ornamental trees, will be very generally planted. 

 The timber of neither is durable, and only used by 

 turners. The horse-chestnut is readily raised from 

 seeds, and the pavias are increased by grafting on the 

 former. 



HIPPOCRATE A (Linnceus). A genusof climbing 

 plants, natives of the East and West Indies. They 

 belong to the third class and first order of Linnaeus, 

 and to a natural order, to which they give a title, 

 namely, 



HIPPOCRATEACE^E. This is a small natural 

 order of plants, comprising five or six genera, being 

 climbing shrubs, or trees, with in general smooth stems, 

 opposite, simple, somewhat leathery leaves, entire or 

 toothed, and furnished with small deciduous stipules. 

 The inflorescence is axillary, paniculate, or in bundles, 

 and the flowers small, regular and united. The 

 'J'onsclla, one of the genera, are said to bear poisonous 

 fruit. Such of the genera as have been introduced 

 into British collections are propagated by cuttings. 



HIPPOCREPIS (Linnrcus). A genus of annual 

 herbs, and trailing or shrubbv perennials, one of them 

 is -a native of England, and called the horse-shoe vetch 

 from the resemblance of its crooked pods. They 

 belong to the natural order Lcnuminosa, are some- 

 times seen in flower borders, and raised from seeds, 

 which ripen plentifully. 



HIPPOMANE (Linnaeus). H. mancmella is the 

 Manchineel. A lofty tree, native of the West Indies, 

 so called from its effects on horses which eat of it. 

 The flowers are monoecious, and it belongs to the 

 order Euphorbiacece. The hippomane is certainly a 

 dangerous plant ; but the poisonous properties of 

 it have been very much exaggerated. The timber 

 is beautifully veined with browrj and white, and 

 capable of receiving a high polish ; but before the trees 

 are felled, fires are usually lighted round them, to 

 inspissate the sap, and render the feller's occupation 

 less dangerous ; for, even when the juices are not 

 applied to produce death, they cause intense pain, 

 likened to the burning of a red-hot iron. The plant 

 is kept in our stoves, and grown in sand and moor 

 earth, and is easily propagated by cuttings. 



HIPPOPOTAMUS. A remarkable genus of 

 pachydermatous mammalia, of which there is only 

 one living species known, inhabiting the larger 

 rivers of Africa and their margins, and feeding on 

 the strong and coarse aquatic plants. The elephant 

 and the rhinoceros, among animals of this class, 



bring us to the very margin of the water, though it 

 must be a margin where there is a strong coat of 

 vegetation to support the steps of such heavy ani- 

 mals. The hippopotamus follows these two, and 

 brings us actually into the water, in which the animal 

 chiefly resides during the day, often with nothing but 

 the nostrils above the surface. We shall, perhaps, 

 find a future opportunity of showing that the pachy- 

 dermata, as they remain now, are the fragments of 

 an animal population which was once far more nume- 

 rous, more widely distributed, and more character- 

 istic of the earth than it is now ; but we may in the 

 mean time remark, that pachydermatous animals are 

 the only large mammalia found native on some of the 

 more remote isles of the Pacific. 



The name Hippopotamtis, or " river horse," which 

 has, from the earliest times been given to this animal, 

 occasioned many mistakes on the part of the elder 

 naturalists with regard to its appearance and charac- 

 ter ; but as the animal is now well known, it is not 

 necessary to advert to these mistakes of the darker 

 ages. 



The generic characters are : four toes on all the 

 feet enclosed in little hoofs at their extremities , six 

 cheek teeth on each side of both jaws, the first three 

 of which, toward the front, are conical, and the three 

 posterior ones furnished with two rows of points on 

 the crowns, which, in time, wear down into a sort of 

 trefoil form. There are four incisors in each jaw : 

 the upper ones short and conical, bent inwards towards 

 the mouth ; the under ones long, cylindrical, and 

 pointing forwards. Canines in both jaws, the upper 

 ones nearly straight, and the lower crooked ; the two 

 acting strongly against each other. 



The body is heavy and massive, the legs very short, 

 and the belly almost in contact with the ground. The 

 head very large, more so in proportion even to the 

 large body than 'the head of any other mammalia ; 

 but this size arises from the great production of the 

 bones of the mouth and those that afford insertion to 

 the muscles which move the jaw, and not to any 

 superior development of the cranial cavity, which, on 

 the other hand, is comparatively small. The muzzle 

 is large and thick, so as to cover the powerful arma- 

 ture of the mouth. The tail is short, the eyes and 

 ears small, the coat without fur, and of a dark and 

 repulsive colour. The whole aspect of the hippopo- 

 tamus is repulsive. It has a very stupid look, and 

 yet its air is ferocious ; and its mouth, though not in 

 any respect of a carnivorous character, is about as 

 ugly a mouth as can well be imagined. 



Still the 'hippopotamus is by no means destitute of 

 interest, and that interest is heightened when we 

 reflect that, as a species, it stands alone in its genus, 

 and occupies a place in nature which could be filled 

 by no other existing animal. On land it is a very 

 awkward walker, not only on account of the shortness 

 of its legs, but because its body is specifically heavier 

 or understood to be so, than most other animals. 

 This probably enables it to keep it's footing in the 

 water much better than if its specific gravity were 

 more nearly the same. Its usual motion in the water 

 is not swimming, but walking, though it can swim, as 

 indeed most of the Pachydermata can readily do. 

 frequents the muddy banks of the rivers, usually 

 where the vegetation is rank, is seldom out of the 

 water during the day, but comes to the land to feed 

 during the night. Though dull as well as ferocious 

 in its disposition, it is very timid on land, as if it felt 



