THE TROPICAL ZONE. 81 - 



his tongue swelled to such a degree that he 

 could not move it ; he became utterly incapable- 

 of speaking, and was confined to the house for 

 some days in the most excruciating torments. 

 Another extremely venomous West Indian plant 

 is Isotoma longiflora, a lobeliaceous plant ; the 

 Spanish Americans call \bPrebenta caballos, be- 

 cause it proves fatal to horses that eat it, causing 

 them to swell until they burst ; taken internally 

 it acts as a violent cathartic, the effects of which 

 no remedy can assuage, and which end in death ; 

 the leaves make a powerful blister. 



The manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella) 

 is a native of these islands, and has been already 

 alluded to. It is extremely poisonous, and the 

 juice when applied to the skin produces cor- 

 roding ulcers. It has been stated on good 

 authority, that if a person takes refuge under 

 one of these trees from a shower of rain, the- 

 droppings become charged with its exudations, 

 and produce troublesome sores on any part of 

 the skin which they may touch. The fruit is 

 very beautiful, and looks like an apple, but is 

 filled with a juice similar to that of the tree, but 

 milder ; the burning that it causes in the lips 

 of those that bite it, guards the careless from. 

 the dangers of eating. 



Hum crepitans, the sand-box tree, a tree of the 

 spurge tribe, has also a very poisonous juice, vio- 

 lently purgative, and if it gets into the eyes pro- 

 duces blindness, with intolerable pain. Its seeds 

 are said to have been administered to negro- 

 slaves, in doses of one or two, as purgatives, but, 



