62 SELECT PLANTS FOR INDUSTRIAL CULTURE 



of North America. Likes forest soil, not moist. Heart- 

 wood pale -coloured, remarkable for strength, elasticity, heavi- 

 ness and durability, yet fissile, used for axles, spokes, felloes, 

 handles, chairs, screws, sieves, and the best of mallets ; the 

 saplings for hoops and wythes. Hickory is the most heat- 

 giving amongst all North American woods. Seeds very oily. 

 Nut small, but sweet. A variety produces nuts as large 

 as an apple. 



Caryota urens, Linne. 



India. One of the hardier Palms, ascending, according to 

 Dr. Thomas Anderson, the Himalayas to an altitude of 5,000 

 feet, yet even there attaining a considerable height, though 

 the temperature sinks in the cooler season to 40 Fahrenheit. 

 Drude mentions that species of this genus reach up to an 

 elevation of 7,500 feet, where the temperature occasionally 

 approaches the freezing point. The trunk furnishes a sago- 

 like starch. This Palm flowers only at an advanced age, and 

 after having produced a succession of flowers dies away. 

 From the sap of the flowers toddy and palm sugar are pre- 

 pared, as well as from the Cocos and Borassus Palm ; occasion- 

 ally as much as twelve gallons of toddy being obtained from 

 one tree in a day. The fibre of the leaf stalks can be manu- 

 factured into very strong ropes, also into baskets, brushes, and 

 brooms. The outer wood of the stem serves for turnery. 



Casimiroa edulis, Llav and Lexarz. 



Mexico, up to the cool heights of 7,000 feet, bearing orange- 

 like fruits (Seemann). This tree comes into bearing in about 

 ten years ; the kernel is deleterious (Hernandez) ; the pulp of 

 a delicious, melting, peach-like taste (Gamier) . The fruit is 

 said to induce sleep. 



Cassia acutifolia, Delile. 



Indigenous, or now spontaneous, in Northern and Tropical 

 Africa and South- West Asia. Perennial. The merely dried 

 leaflets constitute part of the Alexandrian and also Tinnevelly 

 senna. The active principle of senna namely, cathartic 

 acid occurs also in the Coluteas and in Coronilla varia, ac- 

 cording to C. Koch. 



Cassia angustifolia, Vahl. 



Northern and Tropical Africa and South- Western Asia, indi- 

 genous or cultivated. Perennial. Yields Mecca senna ; also 

 the Bombay and some of the Tinnevelly senna. 



