248 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NA TURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



observes that the Stageneria vernicifera of the Indian Archipelago, 

 another member of the Anacardiaceous family which yields the black 

 varnish called Japan lacquer, contains a resin which is extremely 

 acrid, causing excoriations and blisters if applied to the skin. The 

 people of Sumatra consider it dangerous even to sit or sleep beneath 

 its shade. 



It is not that every member of the Anacardiaceous family contains an 

 acrid resinous fluid. Ondaatje, of Ceylon, for instance, says, that the 

 resin yielded by Semecarpus Gardneri, a native of Ceylon, is free from 

 acridity (Pharmac. Journal, p. 819, Vol. XIII, 1882-83, 3rd Ser.). 



The dirty brown soft gummy exudation from incisions made in the 

 bark is notably tasteless and free from acrid properties ; it dissolves 

 slowly in the mouth (Brandis). This freedom of the gum from acridity 

 is not unlike that of the pinkish gum of Moving a pterygosperma, nearly 

 every part of which plant partakes of the odour of the true horse-radish 

 or of mustard oil. It must be noted that a distinction should be made 

 between the pure gum and the gum-resin or oleo-resin which respectively 

 exude from different parts of the plants belonging to the Anacardiaceous 

 family. The one is a pure gum in solid masses or tears, whereas the 

 other is a resinous tarry oily-looking fluid, generally white in the 

 tender parts of the Semecavpus anacardium plant and its young fruit. 



The resinous juice of the pericarp is much used medicinally by the 

 natives of this country. It may be named, without fear of contradic- 

 tion, as the Indian panacea for all sorts of complaints from the mildest 

 to the gravest. In fact, there is no affection which the Indian flesh is 

 heir to in which it is not, almost instinctively, used. It is often used 

 externally with marked relief, barring individual idiosyncrasy, which 

 renders some constitutions readily susceptible to its poisonous effects ; 

 it is not less often productive of dangerous results in other instances, 

 the remedy proving worse than the disease itself for the cure of which 

 it was originally used, and producing large sloughs, far beyond expecta- 

 tion. Internally, the juice acts as a tonic, though at times it produces 

 violent gastric inflammation. When administered by the mouth, the 

 resinous juice is well dissolved in vegetable oils, milk, curds, or whey. 



As an article of domestic economy the resinous juice is extremely 

 valuable. It is commonly used by the natives for marking linen and 



