CELASTRACE^. 29 



in edging, in walls, in the shapes of animals, in figures, and in 

 arabesques, it has served and serves still for the ornamentation of the 

 most celebrated parks ; it will suffice to mention Pliny's villa at 

 Tusculum, the Vatican, the Escurial, and the grounds at Yersailles. 

 The branches also figure in our religious festivals. The agriculturist 

 formerly gathered them for manure, chiefly for the vine, and as litter 

 for small cattle. But it is for its yellow wood, heavier than water, 

 and but slightly combustible, with fine and close grain, that the Box 

 is now most useful ; it is frequently employed by cabinet and toy 

 makers, coopers, carvers, turners, musical instrument makers, and 

 chiefly by engravers on wood. Many other Celastracece produce 

 wood employed in industry. Of that of the indigenous Euonymus a. 

 charcoal is made, used for sketching and making gunpowder ; like- 

 wise that of many species of Celastrus, as 0. serrulatus in Abyssinia. 

 The yellow wood of the common Euonymus is used by turners ; 

 organ pipes, spindles, knitting needles, skewers, pegs for the shoe- 

 maker, and many other objects are also made of it.^ The seminal 

 coats of this plant are used for dyeing yellow. In many Celastracece 

 the wood itself furnishes the dye. Euonymus tingens of the East 

 Indies owes its name to this fact ; it is used to tattoo the skin, and 

 especially the face of the Hindoos. Elceodendron croceum furnishes 

 the Golden Wood of the Cape, also employed in dyeing. The 

 Salvadorece have the the same general properties as the Celastracece, 

 The root has an acrid blistering bark. The trunk of ^S'. persica ^ (fig. 

 16-21) has a tonic bark ; its leaves are purgative. With the branches 

 conveniently cut, the Arabs clean their teeth. The fruit is edible, 

 having an aromatic and piquant flavour, like that of garden cress 

 {Lepidium sativum). This plant appears to be the ^^ mustard" 

 [Sinapis) of Scripture, celebrated for its rapid growth. Many 

 Celastracece are cultivated in our gardens as ornamental plants : such 

 as Celastrus scandens, one of our rare open-air climbers and many 

 species of Euonymus, notably E. japomcus, so closely resembling the 

 Booj in its foliage, and comprising so many and such beautiful 

 horticultural varieties. 



1 Among the Celastracece with wood useful making charcoal. At Ceylon, the wood of 



for cabinet-work or making musical instruments KoJconna Zeylanica Thw. is used for making 



are also mentioned, at the Cape of Good Hope, snuff. 



Celastrus aeuminatus L. {Zt/bast), VEartogia 2 Garcin. Act. Angl. (1749). — Jj. Amcen. in. 



eapensis Thunb. {Lepelhout, Smalblad), Mauro- 21. Lamk. III. t. 81.— A. DC. Prodr. xvii. 28. 



cenia eapensis {Hottentot Clierry-tree of the — S. Indica Eoyle. — Rivina paniculata L. — 



English), Pterocelastrus rostratus Meissn. Cissas arboreaFoRSK. — Embella GrossulariaBxTZ 



{ JFitpeer), &nd P. typietts (S^eMaow), used for {Arak, Mesuak). 



