343 



species of the same genus are remarkable for sending down numerous roots " 

 from their brandies, which strike into the earth and convert the tree into 

 a kind of grove. 



Distribution. The Artocarpacese constitute a large group, whose 

 members are almost exclusively tropical and subtropical in both hemi- 

 spheres. 



Qualities and Uses. Most of these plants have a milky juice, con- 

 taining more or less of an acrid poisonous principle and of caoutchouc. 

 Brotutonnetia papyrifera is the Paper-Mulberry tree, the inner bark of 

 which is used for making paper &c. in China and the South-Sea Islands. 

 Antiaris saccidora has a fibrous bark, used for cordage and matting, also 

 Cecropia peltata, JBrosimum, &c. Caoutchouc is largely obtained from 

 Castilloa elastica, Ficus elastica, and other species ; a milky j uice, of very 

 nutritious character, containing nearly 4 percent, of fibrin and albumen, 

 is obtained from the Cow- tree of South America, Brosimum (Piratinera} 

 utile. The renowned Upas-tree of Java is a large tree, Antiaris toxicaria, 

 which has a very poisonous juice ; and it is stated that linen made from 

 its fibres, if badly prepared, produces great irritation of the skin. The 

 fruit of Madura aurantiaca, the Osage Orange, has an orange -coloured 

 pulp, used by the North-American Indians to stain their skin ; the wood 

 of JL tinctoria is used by dyers under the name of Fustic. Moms alba^ 

 the White Mulberry, is largely cultivated in Italy and the East for feed- 

 ing silkworms. MOJ-US niyra yields the Mulberries of our gardens. Arto- 

 carpus incisa yields the Bread-fruit. Dorstenia Contrayerva was formerly 

 esteemed as a tonic and diaphoretic. The wood of Ficus Sycomorus, the 

 Sycamore-fig, is very durable, and is supposed to have been used for 

 mummy-cases. The seeds of the plants of this Order are generally whole- 

 some and nutritious. 



STTLAGINACEJE constitute an Order of trees or shrubs, with alternate, 

 simple, leathery leaves and deciduous stipules; flowers diclinous, spiked, 

 with a single 2-, 3-, or 5-parted perianth ; stamens 2 or more on a tumid 

 receptacle ; anthers 2-lobed, dehiscing at the apex ; ovary free, 1-2-celled, 

 each cell with a pair of suspended ovules ; seed perispermic ; embryo 

 straight ; radicle superior. These plants, natives of Madagascar and the 

 East Indies, are nearly allied to Urticece, differing chiefly in the pulvinate 

 disk, inelastic stamens, and anthers bursting at the apex. The dru- 

 paceous fruits of Antidesma pubescens and Stilago Sunias are subacid and 

 agreeable. 



PHYTOCBENACE^: are an Order with somewhat obscure relations, con- 

 sisting of a few East-Indian climbing shrubs with a curiously organized 

 wood. They have diclinous flowers; but the rudiments of the abortive 

 sexual organs exist in the flowers of both kinds, and the flowers have 

 both calyx and corolla. They are sometimes included among the Arto- 

 carpeee, but have seeds with abundant perisperm. Bentham and Hooker 

 place them with Olacaceae, but the affinity seems remote. Genera : 

 Phytoci'ene, Wall. ; lodes, Blume, &c. 



