300 NATURAL HlSTOIiY OF PLANTS. 



(fig. 262-264) and latifolia^ are used to make oil. B. lancifoUa^ 

 of Bengal is said to have an acid rciroshiug mesocarp. All these 

 species have an astringent, tonic, resolvent bark. That of Gluta 

 Benghas^ (fig. 304-307) is rich in an acrid rubefacient juice, 

 even vesicatory, but resinous and very combustible. Hence the 

 branches are used to make torches. In the S2)ecies of Mdunorrhœa, 

 particulary 31. imtata.,'' this resinous juice ^ flows in abimdance from 

 incisions made in the stalk. It is a sort of wood oil, or black varnish, 

 acrid and caustic, considered to have properties analogous to those of 

 the Copaiba tree, belonging to Dip terocarpacecc, etc. In India and Cochin 

 Clxiua this varnish is especially emj^loyed for industrial purposes ; 

 wood, pottery, and household iitcnsils are coated with it. In South 

 America the Astronium is very nearly as useful. The juice, called in 

 Brazil Gusalu preto, is a sort of turpentine, and has all its properties ; 

 it is extracted from A. fraxinifolium.^ In Columbia and several neigh- 

 bouring countries A. graveolens'' is analogous to this. All these trees 

 have a choice wood. The species of Comocladia, Sckinus, and Lithrœa, 

 whose organisation is so like that of the Sumachs, have also the same 

 properties. An acrid odorous juice, often blackening on exposure, 

 flows from the incisions made in them. It is caustic in Cofnocladia 

 dentata,^ integrifolia Jacq., and BnmUastnmi PoiE., or False Brazil 

 Wood, American species ; in the Lithi of Chili or Lithrœa venenosa^^ 

 assigned by us to the genus Sorindcia ; less so in the species o£Sehinus, 

 especially S. MolW^^ (fig. 296-301), having an aromatic, but not 

 agreeable odour, due to a gum-resin found in the bark, leaves, hollows 

 of the pericarp, etc. ; it renders these parts stimulant and sudorific ; 



' RoxB. ?oc. (.'(■(. — E0SENT11.07;. «7. 856. — Saldan. Configur. Vcg, Sec. iii. 21, t. 15 



- lloxB. loc. cit. — March. Aiiacard. 140. {Aroeira, Goiiçalo-alns), 



^ L. Mantiss. 293.— DC. Fioclr. i. 501.— ? jAca. Amcr. 261, t. 181, fig. 96.— DC. 



RosENTH. op. cit. 853. — March. Aimcard. 141. Proch: ii. 65. — Eosenth. op. cit. 853 [Gonzales 



— Stagmaria vernicijlua Jack, in Hook. Comp. to do mato des Brés.). 



Bot. Mag. i. 266.— Lindl. FI. Med. im.— Arbor ^ Jacq. Amer. 13, 173, fig. 4 {Ouao). 



reriiicis Rumi'H. Herk Amhoiii. ii. 259, t. 86 » Miees. Trai'. Chil. ii. 529.— C. Gay. Fl. 



[Kayo limigaH ot'Mala.y). Chil. ii. 43. — March. Aiiacard. 93. — Shus 



■• Wall. Fl. As. Ear. i. 9, t. 11. — Walt. iîc^). caustica Hook, et Arn. in Beech. Voy. Bot. i. 



V. 555. — March. Anacard. 141. 15, t. 7. — Buvaua pleuropogon TuEOZ. — Laurus 



* " Sap of Martaban, Vamish of Siam." caustica MoL. — Persea caustica Spreno. (Litre, 



The M. glabra Wall. (loc. cit. iii. 50, t. 283) Lithi). 



yields an analogous product. '" L. Spec. 1467. — Mill. Icon.t. 246. — Lamk. 



« ScHOTT, in Eeichb. le. Exot. t. 205.— III. t. 822.— DC. Prodr. ii. li.—Bot. Mag. t. 



Eosenth. op. cit. 853. — March. Anacard. 143. 3339. — Linbl. Fl. Med. 287.— Eosenth. op. cit. 



— ? Mijracrodnion Urundenra Allem. All. 848. — March. Anacard. 149 (Moile, Pepper tree 



Trail. d.Comm.Sc. Expl. Hot. i. 3, t. 1, fig. 2. of Peru, of America, and of the Spaniards. 



