198 ON THE MILK-SAP 



(as Aleurites triloba in the Moluccas, Conceveiba guia- 

 nensis in South America) ; as in the Apocynaceous group, 

 several trees afford cooling, juicy, and therefore, highly- 

 valued fruits to the inhabitants of hot regions (Carissa 

 Carandas in the East Indies, C. edulis in Arabia, &c.), 

 so the family of the Urticacea includes the strangest 

 multiplicity of fructifications. The little oil grains of the 

 Hemp, the green grape- like bunches which gracefully 

 adorn the slender twining Hop, the aromatic Mulberry, 

 the sweet Fig, the useful Bread-fruit, all these so various 

 forms belong to one group of plants, and the Botanist 

 traces in all the same fundamental structure, however 

 incongruous these manifold shapes may appear to the 

 eye of the uninitiated. One peculiarity, alone, extends 

 without exception throughout all the species of this large 

 order, namely, the presence of fine, but strong bass-fibres 

 in the bark. The German name for muslin, Nessel-tuch 

 (nettle-cloth), denotes the source from whence the fibre 

 of which it is made was originally obtained (Urtica 

 cannabind), and the skilful industry of the gentle Tahitan 

 prepares the most delicate stuff, without spinning-wheel or 

 loom, from the fine white bass of the Aute or Paper- 

 Mulberry, (Broussonetia papyrifera, Vent.) 



An elegant tree, allied to the last, the Holquahuitl of 

 the Mexicans, or Ule di Papantla of the Spaniards (Cas- 

 tilloa elastica Deppe), furnishes the Caoutchouc of New 

 Spain, and the inconceivable quantities of this substance 

 which are brought to our ports from the East Indies, are 

 collected in great part from the venerable Fig-trees in which 

 that Asiatic tropical world is so rich. On a trunk of giant 

 girth, but seldom more than fifteen feet high, rests the 

 enormous crown of the Banyan or Holy Fig (Ficus reli- 

 giosa) ; the branches often run a hundred feet horizontally 



