452 



NATURAL niSTOSY OF rLANTS. 



perties varying according to their degree of maturity. Bipe, they 

 are eaten in Egypt and Arabia under the name of Desert dates 

 [Dattes d/t desert). They are then sweet, and by fermentation give 

 an alcoholic intoxicating drink. At an earlier period they are pun- 

 gent, bitter, and purgative. They were formerly named Myrobalans 

 d\/u///jjfe; their embryo furnishes a large quantity of peculiar oil. 

 In the seeds of Iroingia is also found a particular kind of fat, obtained 

 especially from a widely-spread species found on the western coast 

 of tropical Africa, from Sierra Leone to Gaboon, Irvingia gabonensis? 

 and known under the name of Dika bread {pain de Dika). This is a 

 brown mass, very similar to cocoa in colour, odour, and taste ; it 

 is formed of seed coarsely pounded, and made into a block of 

 porphyritic appearance, on the bottom of which are whitish 

 impressions. Nearly eight-tenths of it are constituted by a kind 

 of Dika butter (huerre de Dika), which is separated by boiling in 

 water, and is very similar in taste and smell to Cocoa butter. 2 Cneorum 

 is also useful : C. tricoccuw 3 (figs. 493-496) has bitter leaves, and 

 juice purgative, drastic, antiseptic; C. pidveridenlum* of the Cana- 

 ries, still more bitter, is a febrifuge, and its bark is said to be 

 substituted for that of Cinchona. The Skimmias are slightly bitter 

 and aromatic ; the buds of 8. japonica 5 are used in their native 

 country to perfume tea. 



But the most grateful essences met with in this family are col- 

 lected in the glandular vesicles of most of the Aurantiece? The bitter 

 principle is not quite absent, especially at a certain age, and we 

 know how much it is developed in the young fruits of the Orange, 

 Seville Orange, and Lemon trees, &c, with which alcoholic, tonic, 

 aperient, stomachic, and even febrifugal drinks are prepared ; or in 

 the zests of their ripe fruits, which serve the same purpose. The 

 rind of the common lemon 7 is bitter and stimulant ; it is used in 



species, or perhaps a variety of the preceding, a 

 native of India, having the same properties. 



1 II. Bn., in Adansonia, viii. 95. — I. Bar- 

 teri Hook, f., in Trans. Linn. Soc, xxih. (1860), 

 167.— Oliv., Fl. Trop. Afr., i. 314.— Gttib., 

 Brog. S/mpl., ed. 6, iii. 566. — Man g if era gabo- 

 nonsis Attbr.-Lec., ex O'Rohke, in Sep. Pharm., 

 xxxi. (1858), 275 (vulg. Oba, Iba of Gaboon, 

 wild Mango of the English colonies). 



2 Oudem., in Journ. EraM. Chem., lxxi. 356. 



3 L., Spec, 49.— DC, Prodr., ii. 84, n. 1.— 

 Geen. & Godk., Fl. de Fr., i. 341. — Rosenth., 

 Sgn. PI. Diaph., 869. — CKamelaa tricoccos 



Lamk., Fl. Fr., ii. 682 (vnlg. Garoupe, petit 

 Olivier, Olivier nam). 



4 Vent., Jard.de Cels., t. 77.— Webb, Phyt. 

 Canar., t. (^6. 



5 Thunb., Fl. Jap., 4 ; Nov. Gen., 57. — 

 Banks, ie. Keempf., t. 5. — Ilex Skimmia 

 Speeng., Syst., i. 495. 



6 Endl., Enchirid., 549. — Linbl., Fl. 

 Med., 161 ; Yeg. Kingd., 458. — Rosenth., 

 Syn. PI. Biaph., Ibh, 1150. — Guib., Brog. 

 Simpl., ed. 6, iii. 618.— H. Bn., Aurant., 49. 



7 Fruit of Citrus Medica Limon Galles. 

 (Tr. Citrus (1811), 105) or Lemon-tree, ac- 



