184 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



False-Sandal of Crete^ has a reddish odorous wood, said to be 

 astringent and detersive. A, crenata ^ has a solid wood for carpentry 

 and cabinet work. The Dates are also useful trees. That of Pro- 

 vence^ (fig. 95-97) serves to make a great number of domestic 

 articles ^ and musical instruments ; productive hedges of it are 

 planted in the South. Its leaves feed cattle, and its seed pressed 

 furnishes an oil for burning. The Date of the West,* a species from 

 the United States, has also a useful wood employed by carvers and 

 musical instrument makers. Its astringent bark is used for tanning, 

 and also as a febrifuge. Its leaves are said to strengthen and fatten 

 horses. Celtis Tournefortii^ and crassifoUa^^ oriental species, are also 

 astringent plants, prescribed for various kinds of flux. Trema 

 orientalis^^ a beautiful tree of tropical Asia, introduced into the 

 Mascarene isles, is reputed a remedy for epilepsy ; and T. micrantha^^ 

 a Central American species, has a textile liber of which cord and 

 stuffs are made in the Antilles. 



The textile qualities of the bark are common, therefore, in this 

 family, to a number of Ulmece and Morece. But they find their 

 greatest development in the Cannahinece, and principally in the 

 cultivated Hemp^ (fig. 129-136), an herb of Asiatic origin and 

 sought everywhere for the textile fibres of its liber. Their arrange- 

 ment in parallel longitudinal bundles, separated from each other by 

 similarly longitudinal zones of cellular tissue, renders them easily 

 separable by soaking and heating, as is usual in plants eminently 

 textile.^^ It is unnecessary to speak of the stuffs, cordage and 

 various articles prepared from the hemp, its tow and its fibre. These 

 substances are also used to make paper.^^ Much has been said of the 



* Zelhova erenata Spach, lac. cit. 118.— Pl. 228, t. 9.— Pl. Pro<?r. n. 13. 



loc. eit. 165. — JRhamnus carpinifolius Pall. — "^ Celtis orientalis L. Fl. Zeyl. 176. — Sponia 



TlUnus polygama L. C. Rich. — Flanera crenata orientalis Pl. Frodr. xvii. 200, n. 14. 



Desf. ' Celtis micrantha Sw. Fl. Ind.-Occ. i. 157. — 



' Celtis Australis L. Spec. 1478. — Pl. Frodr. Sponia micrantha Dcne. ex Pl. loc. cit. 203, 



xvii. 169, n. 1. — Lotus Arbor IjOb-el. Adv. 439. n. 25. — S. peruviana Ki,. Linncea, xx. 536. 



— L. fruetu Cerasi Bauh. Finaz, 447 {Fabre- ' See p. 164, note 2. 



eoulier, Fabreguier, Fetiabregne, Bois de Fer- ^° On the structure of hemp and its liber, see 



pignan). Reissek, Die Faaerg. d. Leines, etc. Fenkschr. 



* Shafts, forks, whips, hoops, etc. Ah. TFiss. Wien, vi.— Oliv. Sttm Bicot. 34. — 

 * L. Spec. 1478.— Pl. Frodr. 174, n. 10.— Dutailly, Rech. Anat.-Fhys. sur le CAanvre, 



Lotus arbor virginiana fruetu rubra Rai, Hist. Adansonia, ix. 263. 



X917 {M. des Antilles, M. Ramon). ^^ The wood, stripped of its bark or chinevottet 



5 Lamk. Diet. iv. 138. is used to make matches, light canes, charcoal 



P Lamk. loc. dtp 132, — Michx, f. Arbr. iii. for powder, etc. 



