22 



udes in a liquid state and soon hardens into a white, brittle mass. Candles 

 made from this get soft in hot weather, which is prevented by coating them 

 with insect wax. A liquid oil is obtained from the seeds by pressing. The 

 tree yields a hard wood, used by the Chinese for printing blocks, and its 

 leaves are used in dyeing black. 



201. EXOGONIUM PURGA. This plant furnishes the true jalap-tubers of commerce. 



They owe their well-known purgative properties to their resinous ingredi- 

 ents. Various species of Ipomoea furnish a spurious kind of this drug, 

 which is often put in the market as the genuine article. 



202. EXOSTEMMA CARIB^UM. This West Indian plant has become naturalized in 



southern Florida. It belongs to the cinchona family and is known as 

 Jamaica bark. It is also known as Quinquina Caraibe. The bark is re- 

 puted to be a good febrifuge, and also to be employed as an emetic. It is 

 supposed to contain some peculiar principle, as the fracture displays an 

 abundance of small crystals. The capsules, before they are ripe, are very 

 bitter, and their juice causes a burning itching on the lips. 



203. FERONIA ELEPHANTUM. The wood apple or elephant apple tree of India, 



belonging to the family Aurantiacece. It forms a large tree in Ceylon, and 

 yields a hard, heavy wood, of great strength. It yields a gum, which is 

 mixed with other gums and sold under the name of East Indian gum 

 arabic. The fruit is about the size of an orange, and contains a pulpy 

 flesh, which is edible, and a jelly is made from it, which is used in cases of 

 dysentery. The leaves have an odor like that of anise, and the native 

 India doctors employ them as a stomachic and carminative. 



204. FEUILL^EA CORDIPOLIA. The sequa or cacoon antidote of Jamaica. It belongs 



to the cucumber family, and climbs to a great height up the trunks of 

 trees. The seeds are employed as a remedy in a variety of diseases, and 

 are considered an antidote against the effects of poison; they also contain 

 a quantity of semisolid fatty oil, which is liberated by pressing a .id boil- 

 ing them in water. 



205. Ficus ELASTICA. This plant is known as the india-rubber tree. It is a native 



of the East Indies, and is the chief source of caoutchouc from that quarter 

 of the globe, although other species of Ficus yield this gum, as well as sev- 

 eral plants of other genera. It is a plant of rapid growth, and from the 

 larger branches roots descend to the earth as in the case of the banyan tree. 



206. Ficus INDICA. The famous banyan tree of history. Specimens of this Indian 



fig are mentioned as being of immense size. One in Bengal spreads over a 

 diameter of 370 feet. Another covered an area of 1,700 square yards. It 

 is one of the sacred trees of the Hindoos. It was known to the ancients. 

 Strabo describes it, and it is mentioned by Pliny. Milton also alludes to it 

 as follows: 



Branching so broad along, that in the ground 

 The bending twigs take root; and daughters grow 

 About the mother tree; a pillared shade, 

 High overarched, with echoing walks between. 

 There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 

 Shelters in cool ; and tends his pasturing herds 

 At loop-holes cut through thickest shade. 



207. Ficus RELIGIOSA. The pippul tree of the Hindoos, which they hold in such 



veneration that, if a person cuts or lops off any of the branches, he is looked 

 upon with as great abhorrence as if he had broken the leg of one of their 

 equally sacred cows. The seeds are employed by Indian doctors in medicine. 



208. FLACOURTIA SEPIARIA. A bushy shrub, used in India for hedges. Its fruit 



has a pleasant, subacid flavor when perfectly ripe, but the unripe fruit is 

 extremely astringent. The Indian doctors use a liniment made of the bark 

 in cases of gout, and an infusion of it as a cure for snake bites. 



209. FOURCROYA CUBENSE. This plant is closely related to the agave, and, like 



many of that genus, furnishes a fine fiber, which is known in St. Domingo 

 as Cabuya fiber. These plants are very magnificent when in flower, throw- 

 ing up stems 20 to 30 feet in height, covered with many hundreds of yucca- 

 like blossoms. 



210. FRANCISCEA UNIFLORA. A Brazilian plant called Mercurio vegetal; also known 



as Manaca. The roots, and to some extent the leaves, are used in medicine; 

 the inner bark and all the herbaceous parts are nauseously bitter; it is re- 



