IN EXTRA-TEOPICAL COUNTRIES. 107 



Ervnm Lens, Linnd. {Lens eseulenta, Moench.) 



Mediterranean regions. Orient. Cultivated up to an elevation 

 of 11,500 feet in India. The Lentil. Annual, afEording in its 

 seeds a palatable and nutritious food. A calcareous soil is 

 essential for the prolific growth of this plant. The leafy stalks, 

 after the removal of the seeds, remain a good stable-fodder. 

 The variety called the Winter Lentil is more prolific than the 

 Summer Lentil. 



Erythroxylon Coca, Lamarck.* 



Peru. This shrub is famed for the extraordinary stimulating 

 property of its leaves, which pass under the names of Spadic 

 and Coca. They contain two alkaloids, coeain and hygrin ; 

 also a peculiar tannic acid. More than £600,000 worth is 

 annually collected. The Peruvians mix the leaves with the 

 forage of mules, to increase their power of enduring fatigue. 

 Whether any of the many oth^r species of Erythroxylon possess 

 similar properties seems never yet to have been ascertained. 



Eucalyptus acmeuoides, Schauer. 



New South Wales and East Queensland. The wood used in the 

 same way as that of E. obliqua (the Stringy Bark Tree), but 

 superior to it. It is heavy, strong, durable, of a light colour, 

 and has been found good for palings, flooring boards, battens, 

 rails, and many other purposes of house cai-pentry (Rev. Dr. 

 Woolls). 



Eucalyptus amygdalina, Labillardiere. 



South-East Australia. Vernacularly known as Brown and 

 White Peppermint Tree or Mountain Ash. In sheltered 

 springy forest glens attaining excentionally a height of over 400 

 feet, there forming a smooth stem and broad leaves, producing 

 also seedlings of a foliage difEerent to the ordinary state of E. 

 amygdalina> as occurs in more open country, which has small 

 narrow leaves and a rough brownish bark. The former species 

 or variety, which might be called Eucalyptus regnans, represents 

 probably the loftiest tree on the globe. Mr. W. Robinson, 

 Surveyor, measured a tree at the foot of Mount Baw-Baw, which 

 was 471 feet long. Another tree in the Cape Otway ranges was 

 found to be 415 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, where cut for 

 felling, at a considerable height above the ground. The wood 

 is fissile, well adapted for shingles, rails, for house-building, for 

 the keelson and planking of ships, and other purposes ; the wood 

 of the smaller rough-barked variety has proved very lasting for 

 fence posts. Labillardiere's name applies iU to any of the 



