soap (aa detergent as castile), and will rnix and form, a lather with salt water 

 as well as with fresh. The sap from the heart leaves is formed into pulque. 

 This sap is sour, but has sufficient sugar and mucilage for fermentation. 

 This vinous beverage has a filthy odor, but those who can overcome the 

 aversion to this fetid smell indulge largely in the liquor. A very intoxicating 

 brandy is made from it. Razor strops are made from the leaves ; they are 

 also used for cleaning and scouring pewter. 



17. Agate EIGIDA. — The sisal hemp, introduced into Florida many years ago, 



for the sake of its fiber, but its cultivation has not been prosecuted to a com- 

 mercial success. Like many other of the best vegetable fibers found in leaves, 

 it contains a gummy substance, which prevents the easy separation of the 

 fiber from the pulp. 



18. Aleueites triloba. — The candleberry tree, much cultivated in tropical coun- 



tries for the sake of its nuts. The nuts or kernels, when dried and stuck on a 

 reed, are used by the Polynesians as a substitute for candles and as an article of 

 food ; they are said to taste like walnuts. When pressed, they yield largely of 

 pure palatable oil, as a drying oil for paint, and known as artists' oil. The 

 cake, after the oil has been expressed, is a favorite food for cattle. The root 

 of the tree affords a brown dye, which is used to dye cloths. 



19. Algarobia glandulosa. — The mezquite tree, of Texas, occasionally reaching a 



height of 25 to 30 feet. It yields a very hard, durable wood, and affords a large 

 quantity of gum resembling gum arabic, and answering every purpose of that 

 gum. 



20. Allamanda cathartica. — This plant belongs to the family of Apooynacece, 



which contains many poisonous species. It is often cultivated for the beauty 

 of its flowers; the leaves are considered a valuable cathartic, in moderate 

 doses, especially in the cure of painter's colic; in large doses they are violently 

 emetic. It is a native of South America. 



21. Aloe socoteina. — Bitter aloe, a plant of the lily family, which furnishes the 



finest aloes. The bitter, resinous juice is stored up in greenish vessels, lying 

 beneath the skin of the leaf, so that when the leaves ai - e cut transversely, the 

 juice exudes, and is gradually evaporated to a firm consistence. The inferior 

 kinds of aloes are prepared by pressing the leaves, when the resinous juice 

 becomes mixed with the mucilaginous fluid from the central part of the leaves, 

 and thus it is proportionately deteriorated. Sometimes the leaves are cut and 

 boiled, and the decoction evaporated to a proper consistence. This drug is 

 imported in chests, in skins of animals, and sometimes in large calabash- 

 gourds, and although the taste is peculiarly bitter and disagreeable, the per- 

 fume of the finer sorts is aromatic, and by no means offensive. It is common 

 in tropical countries. 



22. Alsophila austealis. — This beautiful tree-fern attains a height of stem of 25 



to 30 feet, with fronds spreading out into a crest 26 feet in diameter. These 

 plants are among the most beautiful of all vegetable productions, and in their 

 gigantic forms indicate, in a meager degree, the extraordinary beauty of the 

 vegetation on the globe previous to the formation of the coal measures. 



23. Alstonia scholaeis. — The Pali-mara, or devil tree, of Bombay. The plant 



attains a height of 80 or 90 feet; the bark is powerfully bitter, and is used in 

 India in medicine. It is of the family of Apocynacece. 



24. Amomum meleguetta. — Malaguetta pepper, or grains of paradise; belonging 



to the ginger family, Zingiberdcece. The seeds of this and other species are 

 imported from Guinea; they have a very warm and camphor-like taste, and 

 are used to give a fictitious strength to adulterated liquors, but are not con- 

 sidered particularly injurious to health. The seeds are aromatic and stimu- 

 lating, and form, with other seeds of similar plants, what are known as car- 

 damoms. 



25. Amyris balsamifeea.— This plant yields the wood called Lignum Rhodium. 



It also furnishes a gum resin analogous to Elemi, and supposed to yield In- 

 dian Bdellium. 



26. Anacardium occxdentale. — The cashew nut tree, cultivated in the West Indies 



and other tropical countries. The stem furnishes a milky juice, which be- 

 comes hard and black when dry, and is used as a varnish. It also secretes 

 a gum, like gum arabic. The nut or fruit contains a black, acrid, caustic oil, 

 injurious to the lips and tongue of those who attempt to crack the nut with 

 their teeth; it becomes innocuous and wholesome when roasted, but this 

 process must be carefully conducted, the acridity of the fumes producing 

 severe inflammation of the face if approached too near. 



