222 DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. 



in diameter. The felling takes place at the end of the year, and the trunk 

 is allowed to remain on the ground for several months, during which time 

 the white ants eat away the valueless sap wood but leave the fragrant heart- 

 wood untouched. The heart-wood is then sawn into lengths two to four feet 

 long. These are afterwards more carefully^ trimmed at the forest depots, and 

 left to dry slowly in a close warehouse for some weeks, by wliich the odor 

 is improved, and the tendency of the wood to split obviated. An annual 

 auction of the wood takes place, at which merchants from all parts of India 

 congregate. The largest pieces are chiefly^ exported to China, the small 

 pieces to Arabia ; and those of medium size are retained for use in India. 



Use. — The fragrance resides in the heart-wood and the root. The heart- 

 wood also is valuable in the arts, the sap-wood being too soft for the construc- 

 tion of furniture. Sandal-wood is hard, close-grained, takes a fine polish, and 

 is employed for making musical instruments, toilet-boxes, fans, and fancy 

 articles ; drawers and boxes for preserving furs, silks, and woollens from the 

 depredations of insects are also constructed from it, and it is largely used by 

 engravers, for whose purposes it excels the famous box-Avood. It is also used by 

 the Chinese and other Asiatic pagans as a perfume to burn before their idols. 



Oil of sandal-wood is obtained from the chips, sawdust, and raspings of the 

 wood, by slow distillation. The oil is employed for adulterating the attar of 

 roses, and for compounding medicines. It is an ingredient in the favorite 

 handkerchief extracts, colognes, and fancy soaps of the shops. The seed of 

 the sandal-wood yields a fatty oil by decoction, used for illuminating purposes. 



Order XLIX. EUPHORBIACE^. (Spurge Family.) 



Plants of various habits, generally with milky juice. Leaves mostly 

 alternate, stipulate, and often undivided; inflorescence usually com- 

 pound, sometimes with a calyx-like involucre inclosing several reduced 

 declinous flowers ; perianth single, of united sepals, or none, or double 

 (when double it consists mostly of small, distinct petals) ; stamens 

 1-1,000 ; ovary superior, usually 3-celled (rarely 2-many-celled) ; 

 cells 1-2-ovuled ; ovules pendulous from the inner angle, anatropous. 

 Fruit capsular, separating from the axis into cocci (sometimes a 

 drupe) ; embryo in axis ; fleshy or oily endosperm ; radicle superior. 



No. of genera, 195 ; species, 3,000. Habitat, tropical and temperate 

 zones. 



ETJPHOKBIA, L. (Spurge.) Flowers monoecious, without floral 

 enveloj)es, several in a cluster, inclosed in a calyx-like involucre, with 

 4 to 5 lobes, frequently with 4 to 5 glands ; staminate flowers, 9 or 

 more in a cluster, each with 1 stamen and bract ; pistillate flower 

 central, with a 3-celled, 3-ovuled ovary on a long pedicel ; styles 3 in 

 number, bifid ; capsules 3-lobed, with 3 seeds or nuts. Juice milky. 



E. Ipecacuanhse, L, Stems usually short and in clusters, slender, and dif- 

 fusely, bifurcately branched. Leaves opposite, oblong, linear-lobed, or slit, 

 variable, sessile, heads on thread-like pedicels ; seed white, compressed, pitted ; 

 root very large, forked, and perennial. Sands of Xew Jersey and south. 



Etymology. — Euphorbia is named in honor of Euphorbus, physician to King 

 Juba of Mauritania. Ipecacuanha is from the Brazilian ipecaagnen, road-side 

 sick-making plant. Spurge is from the Latin expuryare, cleanse. 



