82 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



with fatal consequences. Its capsule has the 

 curious property, when quite ripe, of bursting 

 with a loud report like a pistol, scattering the 

 seeds with great force ; many of our native eu- 

 phorbias exhibit the same property in a slight 

 degree, as may easily be observed by, gathering a 

 few of the riper capsules, and spreading them on 

 a paper in a dry warm place. It is a native of 

 Jamaica. The inner bark of Lagetta lintearia 

 is the beautiful lace bark, so ciilled because 

 when macerated and stretched* laterally, it 

 assumes the appearance of coarse lace ; twisted 

 and knotted, it was formerly employed in 

 making the slave whips used by negro drivers. 

 In the thick woods of the Sandwich Islands, 

 an endless mass of tree ferns, screw pines, (Pan- 

 danuSj) and others, are so closely interwoven by 

 the various species of ipomsea, that all the 

 climbing-plants must be torn down in order to 

 force a path. In some parts, the screw pines, 

 and plants of the pine apple tribe, (Ananas,) 

 appear in great numbers ; " they climb up the 

 trunks of the trees, and surround them with 

 hundreds of branches, so that their foliage is 

 impenetrable, and the traveller must pursue 

 his journey upon this matting of vegetation ; at 

 last he walks, without perceiving it, at a height 

 of eight or ten feet above the surface of the 

 earth, and it is only where he reaches a fissure 

 in this mountain of plants that he can survey 

 the enormous mass." The pandanus, or screw 

 pine, has a singular appearance ; it has long, 

 narrow, shining green leaves, which grow 



