31 



upwards of 50 per cent of starch, which is made into a kind of bread by 

 the natives. The timber of this tree is extensively employed in shipbuild- 

 ing, its great strength and durability rendering it peculiarly well suited for 

 this purpose. 



307. NEPENTHES DISTILLATORIA. This pitcher plant is a native of Ceylon. The 



pitchers are partly filled with water before they open; hence it was sup- 

 posed to be produced by some distilling process. In Ceylon the old, tough, 

 flexible stems are used as willows. 



308. NEPHELIUM LITCHI. This sapindaceous tree produces one of the valued indig- 



enous fruits of China. There are several varieties; the fruit is round, 

 about an inch and a half in diameter, with a reddish-colored, thin, brittle 

 shell. When fresh they are filled with a sweet, white, transparent, jelly- 

 like pulp. The Chinese are very fond of these fruits and consume large 

 quantities of them, both in the fresh state and when dried and preserved. 



309. NERIUM OLEANDER. This is a well-known plant, often seen . J n cultivation, and 



seemingly a favorite with many. It belongs to a poisonous family and is a 

 dangerous poison. A decoction of its leaves forms a wash, employed in the 

 south of Europe to destroy vermin; and its powdered wood and bark con- 

 stitute the basis of an efficacious rat-poison. Children have died from eating 

 the flowers. A party of soldiers in Spain, having meat to roast in camp, 

 procured spits and skewers of the tree, which there attains a large size. The 

 wood having been stripped of its bark, and brought in contact with the meat, 

 was productive of fatal consequences, for seven men died out of the twelve 

 who partook of the meat and the other five were for some time danger- 

 ously ill. 



310. NOTELJEA LIGUSTRINA. The Tasmanian iron wood tree. It is of medium growth 



and furnishes wood that is extremely hard and dense, and used for mak- 

 ing sheaves for ships' blocks, and for other articles that require to be of 

 great strength. The plant belongs to the olive family. 



311. OCHROMA LAGOPUS. A tree that grows about 40 feet high, along the seashores 



in the West Indies and Central America, and known as the cork wood. 

 The wood is soft, spongy, and exceedingly light, and is used as a substitute 

 for cork, both in stopping bottles and as floats for fishing nets. It is also 

 known as Balsa. 



u!2. (ENOCARPUS BATAVA. A South American palm, which yields a colorless, 

 sweet-tasted oil, used in Para for adulterating olive oil, being nearly as 

 good for this purpose as peanut oil, so largely used in Europe. A pain table 

 but slightly aperient beverage is prepared by triturating the fruits in water, 

 and adding sugar and mandiocca flour. 



313. OLEA EUROP^EA. The European olive, which is popularly supposed to furnish 



all the olive oil of commerce. It is a plant of slow growth and of as slow 

 decay. It is considered probable that trees at present existing in the Vale 

 of Gethsemane are those which existed at the commencement of the 

 Christian era. The oil is derived from the flesh of the fruit, and is pressed 

 out of the bruised pulp; inferior kinds are from second and third pressings. 

 The best salad oil is from Leghorn, and is sent in flasks surrounded by rush- 

 work. Gallipoli oil is transported in casks, and Lucca in jars. The pick- 

 ling olives are the unripe fruits deprived of a portion of their bitterness by 

 soaking in water in which lime and wood ashes are sometimes added, and 

 then bottled in salt and water with aromatics. 



314. OPHIOCARYON PARADOXUM. The snake nut tree of Guiana, so called on 



account of the curious form of the embryo of the seed, which is spirally 

 twisted, so as to closely resemble a coiled-up blacksnake. The fruits are 

 as large as those of the black walnut, and although they are not known to 

 possess any medical properties, their singular snake-like form has induced 

 the Indians to employ them as an antidote to the poison of venomous 

 snakes. The plant belongs to the order of Sapindacece. 



315. OPHIORHIZA MUNGOS. A plant belonging to the cinchona family, the roots of 



which are reputed to cure snake bites. They are intensely bitter, and from 

 this circumstance they are called earth-galls by the Malays. 



316. OPHIOXYLON SERPENTIXUM. A native of the East Indies, where the roots are 



used in medicine as a febrifuge and alexipharmic. 



317. OPUNTIA COCHINELLIFERA. A native of Mexico, where it is largely cultivated 



in. what are called the Nopal plantations for the breeding of the cochineal 

 insect. This plant and others are aLo grown for a similar purpose in the 



