THE SOAPWORT TRIBE. 135 



this reputation. Some of the foreign milkworts 

 furnish dyes, and one is soapy in its nature ; so 

 that the bark of the root, merely agitated in water, 

 produces a froth ; or it may be pounded and made 

 into washballs. With these the ladies of Peru are 

 said to wash their beautiful hair, while the silver- 

 smiths employ them in cleansing and polishing 

 their goods. And this soapy quality prevails so 

 much in another tribe as to give the name of 

 SOAPWORTS.* The fruit of several of them lathers 

 freely, and one especially is used in the West 

 Indies instead of soap ; it is said to cleanse more 

 linen than sixty times the same weight of soap 

 would do." 



" How convenient it would be to have one of the 

 soapworts growing in our garden !" said Mary. 



" We have one of them/' replied her father ; 

 "but it possesses this quality very faintly, and 

 only in the seeds. The horse-chestnut t is the one 

 I allude to; but I have never heard that the 

 soapy quality of its seeds has been made useful 

 in any way, although it doubtless imparts the rich- 

 ness to them which, in Switzerland, causes them 

 to be valued for fattening sheep." 



