MANGROVE OF ECONOMIC PLANTS. 263 



resemblance of the roots to the human figure. This idea of its 

 virtues has prevailed since Eeuben " found mandrakes in the 

 field," but it is doubtful whether that was the same plant as the 

 present. A few years ago two children were poisoned, it is 

 said, by eating mandrake roots, which they found in a field. 

 But whatever was the cause of death, it coukl not be from the 

 effects of Mandragora offlcinarum, as it is not a native of this 

 country. 



Mangel Wurzel. {Sec Beet.) 



Mango {Mangifera indica). — This well-known tree belongs to 

 the Cashew Nut family (Anacardiaceae), common throughout the 

 whole of India and other countries of the East, and has been 

 introduced into the AVest Indies and tropical America. It may 

 well be called the Apple of the trojDics ; and, like it, it has a 

 great many varieties, differing in the shape, size, colour, and 

 flavour of the fruit ; some are large, fleshy, and luscious, \\'hile 

 others are so stringy and terebinthaceous that they have been 

 compared to a mouthful of tow soaked in turpentine. They 

 vary in form, some being kidney -shaped, and some roundish 

 and slightly compressed ; their average weight is from a quarter 

 to three-quarters of a pound. Some years ago fine luscious 

 fruits, each weighing half a pound, were produced on an old tree 

 in the Palm-house at Kew. 



Mangosteen (Garcinia Mangostana), a tree of the Gamboge 

 family (Guttifera), attaining a height of about 20 feet, with 

 opposite nearly horizontal branches and smooth elliptical opposite 

 leaves, native of Molucca and other Spice islands ; and it has 

 become indigenous in Java, Singapore, and other parts of the 

 East. The fruit is about the size of an apple, of a reddish-brown 

 colour when ripe, having a thick succulent rind, and crowned 

 with the persistent rays of the stigma. It contains a juicy 

 Avhite pulp of a refreshing, delicate, sweet, and acid flavour. It 

 is universally esteemed, and is considered to be one of the finest 

 of tropical fruits. The rind contains an astringent juice, used as 

 a cure for dysentery. 



Mangrove, a name applied to two genera of shrubs or small 



