196 THE 
AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[Man. 21, 
NOW READY, 
In one thick volume 8vo, containing nearly 1000 pages, and upwards of 500 Illustrations, price 30s. in cloth boards, 
HE VEGETAB 
LE KINGDOM; 
OR, THE STRUCTURE, CLASSIFICATION, AND USES OF PLANTS. 
Xilustratey upon the 
BY JOHN LINDLEY, Pm.D., 
Natural System. 
F.R.S., 
PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN UNIVERSITY GOLLEGE, LONDON, AND THE ROYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
*,* To suit the convenience of Students and others, it is proposed to issue the above Work also in 12 Monthly Parts, price 2s. 6d. each, the first of which will appear 
on the 31st instant. 
[SPECIMEN OF THE WORK.1 
278 EUPHORBIACEJE. 
The roots of some are emetic. According to Deslongchamps, the powdered root of E, 
Gerardiana vomits easily in doses of 18 or' 20 grains. The root of Euphorbia Ipecacu- 
anha is said, by Barton, to be equal to the true Ipecacuanha, in some respects superior 5 
and not unpleasant either in taste or smell, E. Pithyusa in the Mediterranean is also 
esteemed. Euphorbia thymifolia is somewhat aromatic and astringent, and is prescribed 
in India in the diarrhoea of children, and as a vermifuge. In the same way is employed 
E. hypericifolia, a plant of tropical America, which is astringent and somewhat narcotic, 
Nevertheless E. balsamifera has no such qualities, and is eaten when cooked. E. mauri- 
tanica is also employed as a condiment, but its acridity is by no means inconsiderable ; 
they say it is used to adulterate Scammony. The sap of E. phosphorea shines with a 
phosphorescent light in a warm night in the ancient forests of Brazil. 
The genus Pedilanthus stands nearest to Euphorbia, and is not less potent in its qua- 
lity ; P. tithymaloides has an acrid bitter milk; a decoction of the dried shrub of it and 
P. padifolius (called Jewbush) is employed in syphilitic cases, and in amenorrhcea ; the 
root is emetic. Some of the trees again are among the most poisonous of all that tro- 
pical countries produce. The juice of Excæcaria Agallocha, and even its smoke when 
burnt, affects the eyes with intolerable pain, as has been experienced occasionally 
by sailors sent ashore to cut fuel, who, according to Rumphius, having accidentally 
rubbed their eyes with the juice, became blinded, and ran about like distracted men, 
and some of them finally lost their sight. This juice is described as being thick, nau- 
seous, and a violent purgative. The smoke of the burning branches is said to injure 
the eyesight. Agallochum or Aloes wood, an inflammable, fragrant, resinous substance, 
has been supposed to belong to this plant, but is really produced by quite a different 
race. See AQUILARIACEX, The famous Manchineel tree, Hippomane Mancinella, is said 
to be so poisonous that persons have died from merely sleeping beneath its shade. 
This is doubted, indeed, by Jacquin, who, however, admits its extremely venomous 
qualities ; but it is by no means improbable that the story has some foundation in truth, 
particularly if, as Ad. de Jussieu truly remarks, the volatile nature of the poisonous 
principle of these plants is considered, and the various degrees of susceptibility of such 
influences in the human constitution. The juice of Manchineel is pure white, and a 
' single drop of it falling on the skin burns like fire, forming an ulcer often difficult to 
heal. The fruit, which is beautiful, and looks like an apple, is turgid with a similar 
fluid, but in a milder form ; the burning it causes in the lips of those who bite it guards 
the careless from the danger 
of eating it. The juice of 
Hura crepitans is stated to 
be of the same fatal nature as 
that of Excecaria ; its seeds 
are said to have been admi- 
nistered to negro slaves as 
swollen and seized with ery- 
sipelatous phlegmasis, in con- 
seqence of the fumes only of 
this plant, The sap of Com- 
mia cochinchinensis is white, 
tenacious, emetic, purgative, 
a good medicine in obstinate 
dropsy and obstructions. 
, The juice of this Order is not, however, always as dangerous as in the instances just 
given. That of Siphonia elastica, a tree inhabiting Guayana and Brazil, yields the 
bottle India Rubber, which is known in Europe ; in preparing it the natives smear clay 
moulds with repeated layers of the juice, at the same time drying it in smoke. Aleu- 
rites triloba, whose seeds will be mentioned presently, exudes a gummy substance which 
the natives of Tahiti chew ; A. laccifera furnishes gum lac in Ceylon ; and the secre- 
tions of certain Crotons, viz. Draeo and sanguiferum, become a similar red substance 
in the tropical parts of America, 
Among the crowd of emetie and purgative plants having more or less reputation 
Fig. CXCIV.—Fruit of Hura crepitang, 
Fig. CXCIV. 
[Drcurvous EXoGENS. | BgnngnALES.] 
DROSERACEJE, 433 
Orvzr CLVII. DROSERACEZ, SuwpEws. 
Droseracese, DC. Théorie, 214, (1819); Prodr. 1, 317. (1824); Endl. Gen. elxxxix.; Meisner, p. 92, 
Diaenosms— Berberal Exogens, with regular symmetrical flowers, parietal placente, and 
stamens alternate with the petals, or twice as many. 
Delicate herbaceous plants, often covered with glands. Leaves alternate, with stipu- 
ary fringes and a circinate vernation. Peduncles, when young, circinate. Sepals 5, 
persistent, equal, with an imbricated sestivation. Petals 5, hypogynous, imbricated, 
Stamens distinct, withering, 
either equal in number to the 
petals and alternate with 
them, or 2, 3, or 4 times as 
many. Ovary single ; styles 
3-5, either wholly distinct, or 
slightly connected at the base, 
bifid or branched. Ovules 
00, parietal, or attached to a 
placenta at the base, anatro- 
pal. Capsule of 3 or 5 valves, 
which bear the placenta 
either in the middle or at 
their base, and sometimes 
turn in their edges so as to 
form almost perfect dissepi- 
ments. Seeds either naked 
or furnished with an aril. 
Embryo minute, in the base 
of fleshy albumen, 
These plants are gene- 
rally supposed to be nearly 
allied to Violetworts, from 
which their circinate ver- 
nation, several styles, and ex- 
stipulate leaves, distinguish 
them. They are also no 
doubt related to Tutsans, 
which Parnassia 
accords with Sundews, 
Rock-roses (Cistaceze) are 
also named as approaching 
Sundews, and so are Turner- 
ads, the parietal placentation of these Orders haying 
led to the comparison. But if we regard the minute em- 
bryo and copious albumen of Sundews as the first point 
of importance in their structure, then they must be re- 
moved from immediate relation to all the Orders already 
h mentioned, and will fall into either the Berberal or 
Fig. CCCII. Erical Alliance. They will correspond with the former 
in the number of parts in their ovary not agreeing with that of the surrounding parts, and 
with Fumeworts in their parietal placentation ; on the other hand they will claim affinity 
with Ericals in their general appearance. Aldrovanda, a water plant, inhabiting the 
ditches in the South of Europe, is remarkable for its whorled, cellular, shell-like leaves. 
At the Cape of Good Hope, in South America, North America, New Holland, China, 
Europe, Madagascar, the East Indies, wherever there are marshes or morasses, these 
plants are found. Drosophyllum lusitanicum grows on the barren sands of Portugal. 
The common Droseras are rather acid, slightly acrid, and according to. some, poison- 
ous to cattle, The Drosera communis of Brazil is said by A. de St. Hilaire to be poison- 
ous to sheep. Drosera lunata has viscid leaves with glandular fringes, which close upon 
Fig. COCIII. 
Fig. CCCII.—Dionzea museipula. 1. its pistil; 2. a sectional view of it showing the placente ; 3. @ 
seed ; 4, the same without its crustaceous skin, and opened so as to show m » 
Fig. CCOILI.—Drosera longifolia. 1. a flower; 2. a perpendicular section of the ovary ; 3. a perpene 
dicular section of a seed 
FF 
LONDON: PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY BRADBURY AND EVANS, 90, FLEET-STREET, AND WHITEFRIARS. 
