358 BOTANY AND PHARMACOGNOSY. 



small or European Cranberry {V. Oxycoccus) in which the ber- 

 ries are globose. The berries contain from 1.4 to 2.8 per cent, 

 of citric acid ; and a bitter glucoside, oxycoccin. 



II. ORDER EBENALES. 



This order includes three families which are chiefly indig- 

 enous to the Tropics. The leaves are alternate, and the flowers 

 vary in the diflferent families, the fruit being a berry or drupe. 



a. SAPOTACE^.OR SAPODILLA FAMILY.— The plants 

 usually have a milky latex, and many of them yield gutta- 

 percha, of which the following may be mentioned : Palaquiuin 

 Giitta, P. ohlongifolium, P. borneense and P. Treubii, all growing 

 in the East Indies. The latex is obtained by incising the trees 

 and collecting the exuding juice in suitable vessels. It soon coag- 

 ulates and forms grayish or reddish-yellow hard masses, which 

 are plastic at 65° to 70° C. Owing to the fact that the material 

 is plastic when heated and firm and tenacious when cold, it is 

 used for a variety of purposes, as in the manufacture of surgical 

 instruments and as a material for filling teeth. Gutta-percha as 

 it exudes from the tree is supposed to consist of a terpene-like 

 hydrocarbon, which on coagulation is oxidized, forming a number 

 of resinous compounds. The plants of other genera of this family 

 also 3'ield gutta-percha, as Mimusops Balata, M. Elengi and about 

 fifteen species of Payena growing in the East Indies. 



A gum resembling gutta-percha is obtained from the Sabodilla 

 tree {Achras Sapota). This gum is known in commerce as Gum 

 CHICLE and is obtained from Yucatan. It is whitish, brittle 

 and yet somewhat elastic, aromatic, and contains about 75 

 per cent, of resin. It is used in large quantities in the making of 

 chewing gum. 



The seeds of Illipe butyracea yield a fixed oil which is known 

 as VEGETABLE BUTTER. A fixed oil is also obtained from other 

 species of Illipe as well as various species of Bassia, Argania and 

 Butyrospermum, that from the latter bemg known as " shea but- 

 ter." A saponin-like substance is obtained from Omphalocarpum 

 procerum and other plants of this family. A principle yielding 

 hydrocyanic acid is found in the seeds of Vitellaria salicifolia and 



