PLANTS IN THEIR RELATION TO HUMAN WELFARE 129 



also, of the presence of various flavoring compounds in plants, 

 the following products are valuable. . For instance, vanilla 

 extract is made from the vanilla bean, pepper from pepper 

 berries, horse-radish from the root of the horse-radish plant, 

 and ginger from an underground stem. 



We are dependent, too, upon plants for many beverages. 

 The coffee berry supplies us with coffee, tea leaves with tea, 

 and from the pods 

 and seeds of the cocoa 

 tree we obtain cocoa 

 and chocolate. 

 Grapes are used to 

 make wines, from 

 apples cider is pre- 

 pared, and from 

 grains of various 

 kinds other alcoholic 

 liquors are produced. 



Quinine, the well- 

 known remedy for 

 malaria, was formerly 

 obtained from the 

 bark of a tree known 

 as cinchona, which 

 grows in Peru. This 

 medicine is now ob- 

 tained almost exclu- 

 sively from trees cul- 

 tivated in India and other Eastern countries. The camphor 

 tree furnishes camphor gum ; from the juice of poppy fruits 

 opium and morphine are obtained ; whole plants like pep- 

 permint supply us with valuable medicines. In fact, enormous 

 numbers of drugs are prepared from various parts of plants. 



FIG. 63. Chocolate tree. (Courtesy of New 

 York Botanical Garden.) 



