244 JO URNAL, BOMB A 7 NA TUBAL HISTOR T SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



the whole plant should be more or less acrid, and that the oil of the 

 cotyledons, on the other hand, should be perfectly harmless, is not 

 without a parallel in the vegetable kingdom, as will be seen from my 

 remarks on the oil obtained from the seeds of the Moringa pterygos- 

 perma in my last contribution to this Journal, describing that plant. 



I may add one more instance of this strange botanical fact recently 

 gathered from the writings of an Amrican Botanist — Mr. Thomas 

 Nuttall, p. L. s. He says that the leaves of the Western Yew tree 

 [Taxus occidentalism which is the same as the Taxus brevifolia of the 

 Americans and the Taxus baccata of Hooker (in part Flor. Bor. Amer. 

 2, p. 167) " are poisonous to horned cattle and horses, though the 

 berries are inoffensive. Cattle so affected run about in fury and 

 delirium, and at length drop down dead. Three children, according 

 to Dr. Percival of Manchester, were poisoned dead in a few hours by 

 taking a small dose of the green leaves as a remedy for worms, but 

 they appear to have suffered no pain, and after death looked as though 

 they were in a placid sleep, The best antidotes to this poison are 

 oily substances." (Nuttall's North American Sylva, Vol. Ill, p. 89). 



Other instances are not wanting in the Natural Order Anacardiacece 

 itself where the cotyledons are perfectly harmless, though the other 

 parts of the plant contain an acrid juice, as for instance the kaju- 

 nut (cashew-nut). The oil obtained from the cotyledons of this nut 

 is bland, and free from acridity, whereas the pericarp contains an 

 acrid oil. Baillon mentions another plant, the Semecarpus atra 

 (Rhus atra, Forst.) of a similar nature. The roasted seeds of this 

 tree are eaten in New Caledonia ; but the juice of the stalk, or Nole 

 resin, as it is called, is caustic and poisonous. The apple of it, besides, 

 known as the Nole apple, which is merely the fleshy peduncle, is 

 used to prepare a fermented drink. 



The most interesting part of the marking-nut tree is the pericarp 

 of the fruit. " The pericarp contains," says J. Lapire, " 32 per cent, 

 of a vesicating oil of specific gravity 0*991, easily soluble in ether."* 

 This volatile oil is the ingredient which gives the resinous fluid its 

 acrid, and corrosive, escharotic, or caustic property. The acrid juice 



* [ Journal Pharm. (3) XL., ! 6]— Quoted from Henry Watt's Dictionary of Chemistry, 

 Vol. V., 1869. 



