ECONOMICAL USES OF PLANTS. 



97 



547. The famous Cedar of Lebanon is a Larch; but 

 unlike others of its tribe, it has evergreen, and not de- 

 ciduous leaves. In the early days of commerce masts 

 were made of it ; and so highly was the tree esteemed 

 by the Ancient Jews, that David speaks of its tribe as 

 the " Cedars of God," which has been rendered in our 

 version, " Goodly Cedars." The group remaining on its 

 native mountains, to which it is now confined, is said to 

 contain only about 800 or 900 individuals. The trees 

 known as Cedars among us belong to a different family. 

 One of them, the White Cedar, is much used in the 

 manufacture of shingles, fences, and domestic wooden 

 ware. Red Cedar is also used for making pails, tubs, 

 and very largely in the manufacture of Lead-pencils. 

 But of all kinds of wood, that of the true or oriental 

 Sycamore is perhaps the most durable; and for this 

 reason it was used by the ancient Egyptians for mummy 

 chests. 



548. CHARCOAL AND POTASHES. Owing to the 

 abundance of carbon which wood contains, it is largely 

 employed in the arts, and for domestic purposes in a 

 charred condition, all the volatile matter having been 

 driven off by heat, when it is termed Charcoal, which is 

 nearly pure carbon. From the ashes of the harder kinds 

 of wood Potash is extracted, which, by higher degrees of 

 refinement, is manufactured into Pearl-ash and Saleratus. 



549. DYE WOODS. The most valuable of these are 

 Logwood, Brazilwood, Camwood, Barwood, and Fustic. 

 Logwood grows in the West Indies, and is generally em- 

 ployed in dyeing black ; but with different mordants it 

 also yields different shades of red and purple. Brazil- 

 wood forms a beautiful red dye ; and its habitat is 

 sufficiently indicated by its name. Fustic is the Morus 

 tinctoria of the West Indies and Tropical America, and 

 yields a fine yellow dye. Camwood is found in Sierra 

 Leone ; and Barwood, which also colors red, in Angola 

 and other parts of Africa. 



550. The Ferula is a plant belonging to the Fennel 

 tribe. The pith of the stalk, when dried, is used in 

 Turkey, where it is native, instead of tinder ; and also, 

 because it will for a long time sustain combustion, to 

 transport fire from one place to another. In allusion to 

 this circumstance, Hesiod, speaking of the fire which 

 Prometheus stole from Heaven, says he brought it in a 

 ferula. 



551. The Sola is an aquatic plant of Hindostan, 

 whose stems, being extremely light, are applied to a very 

 singular use. The native fisherman binds them into 

 bundles, like great fagots, and with one of these under 

 each arm, to serve as a buoy, or float and without any 



13 



other protection goes out boldly to fish in the deepest 

 waters. Various articles, which are esteemed for their 

 lightness, are also manufactured from the stems of this 

 plant ; and it is used to decorate the shrines at religious 

 festivals. 



552. The Sago of commerce is prepared from the 

 pith of two species of Palm ; and an oil extracted from 

 a kind of Birch, and called " Birch-pickle," gives to 

 Russia leather its peculiar properties and odor. The 

 straw, or stalk of several Grasses is employed in the 

 manufacture of hats and bonnets. That of Rye, in an 

 immature state, is chiefly used among us, and is split 

 before it is braided ; but the beautiful Florence hats are 

 wrought from the whole straws of a kind of grass native 

 to the country. The bark of Birch trees is employed by 

 the Indians to make canoes, thatch houses, and in the 

 manufacture of various articles of ornament and conveni- 

 ence ; it is also used by the Russians to make sails for 

 boats. 



553. Many barks, being rich in the astringent prin- 

 ciple, are very important in the tanning of leather. The 

 Oak and Hemlock are chiefly used among us ; while the 

 beautiful Morocco leather, in the manufacture of which 

 the Moors so greatly excel, is tanned with a species of 

 Sumach. 



554. Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of the Cinna- 

 momum Zeylanicum of Ceylon. It belongs to the same 

 order (Lauraceat) with our Sassafras. Cassia-bark, 

 which in this country and Western Europe is almost 

 always sold for Cinnamon, is the bark of another and in- 

 ferior species of the same genus, native of China. 



555. The Gall-nuts of commerce are excrescences 

 formed by the puncture of a kind of cynip, in the tender 

 shoots of an Oak of Asia Minor, the Quercus infectoria. 

 Gall-nuts are used in the manufacture of ink and black 

 dyes, and also in medicine. 



556. BASS FIBRE OF THE BARK. Our staple plants 

 for the production of Bass fibre are the Flax and Hemp. 

 From the first all our beautiful linens and fine cambrics 

 are made, and from the last our cordage. The Silk- 

 weed, Indian-Hemp, and the Linden tree are also rich in 

 bass cells; and in a country of fewer resources, they 

 might be employed to advantage in the manufacture of 

 cordage, and perhaps cloths. The beautiful Pina cloth 

 is made from the -bass cells of a species of wild Pine- 

 apple found in Mexico. In the Philippine Isles the bass 

 cells from a species of Banana are used in the manufacture 

 of various fabrics ; in the West Indies a very beautiful 

 lace is made, without spinning or weaving, from those of 

 the Lace-tree; and in Tahiti, the Paper-Mulberry is 



