164 



NATURAL HISTORY OP PLANTS. 



they are found placed one in each of the cells of this singular 

 fruit, which sometimes disaggregates and opens with great noise ; 

 they are lenticular, flattened, the outline orbiculate and surface 

 smooth. Many other Euphorhiacem might without doubt be utilized 

 for the same purpose ^, when the seeds are of sufficient size ; but 

 they have scarcely been employed. There are some whose edible 

 kernel contains no dangerous principle : such as the nuts of St. 

 Domingo, produced by Omphalea triandra ; ^ Caryodendron orino- 

 cense,^ eaten in New Granada, and Jatropha Heudelotii^ whose 

 pericarp is said to be equally edible.* Generally, the ripe seeds 

 are covered by a dry and resisting coat ; but sometimes also the 

 exterior coat thickens, presentiag a totally different consistence. In 

 certain species of Baccaurea, it has even been described at a certain 

 epoch as a sapid arU and filled with juice, eating like a fleshy fruit. ® 

 In the Tallow tree ''' it forms all round the seed a thick and white 

 tunic, whose meshes are filled with a wax as useful as that 

 of the bee. In the Kamala of India,^ the seed seems sprinkled 

 with small reddish grains, which are so many isolated, complicated 

 vesicles, dependent from the external seminal coat, and which 



1 In Arabia they use those of Jatropha glauca 

 Vahl et glandulosa Vahi. ; in America of J. 

 herbacea L. At Sierra Leone they employ as 

 poison for rats, etc., the fruit of JDichapetalum 

 toxicaritm, {Chailletia toxicaria Don) or the seed ? 

 (See H. Bn. in Bid. I^eycl. Sc. Med. xiv. 

 631.) 



2 h. Spec. 1377.— H. Bn. Ewphorbiae. 529. 

 t. 7, fig. 6-9.— M. Akg. Prodr. 1136, n. 6.— 

 LiNDL. Veg. Kingd. 280. — Bosenth. op. eit., 

 825. — 0. nucifera Sw. Obs. 95. The seeds are 

 also edible in 0. diandra L. (0. eordata Sw.), 

 cm Liane a I'anse, L. popaye from the Antilles, 

 used to prepare green walnuts, and the leaves 

 topically in treating old ulcers. 



^Kaest. Fl. Colwnb. 91, t. 45.— M. Ako. 

 Prodr. 765 (vulg. Taeai). The albumen fur- 

 nishes a soi-t of butter ■which is said to be per- 

 fectly edible.' 



* H. Bn. in Adansonia, i. 64 ; xi. 134. — M. 

 Akg. Frodr. 1083, n, 17. — Eicinodendron 

 africanus M. Ana. in Flora (1864), 633; 

 Prodr. 1111. 



6 The pericarp is edible and fleshy in Anti- 

 desma Dallachyanum H. Bn. an Australian 

 species. Animals eat that of Securinega Leuco- 

 pyrus M. Abs. {Flueggea Leucopyrm W.), 

 white and fleshy like the berry of a SymphoH- 

 rapot. In the Fhyllanthut Fmblica (L. Spec. 



1393;— H. Bn. Fuphorbtae. 637, t. 24, fig. 

 20-24; — Fmblica officinalis G;ERTN. Fntct. ii. 

 122, t. 108 ; — DichtBlactina nodicaulis Hance, 

 PI. Chin. i. 2), it is the fruit which constitutes 

 the Myrobalans emblics or Spondias, formerly 

 employed as laxative, cooling, etc. (Guib. op. cit, 

 ii. 361. — LiNDL. Fl. Med. 176. Eosenth. op. 

 eit. 838.) 



^ Notably in the S. ramiflo ra and cauliflora 

 LorR. in Cochin China ; in the B, duleis {Pie- 

 rardia duleis Jack), from Sumatra ;' and in the 



B. racemosa (Pirrardia racemosa Bl.), from Java, 

 (vulg. Meriting). 



' Bxcacaria sebifera M. Abq. Prodr. 1210, n. 

 17. — Croton sebiferws L. Spec. ed. 3, 1425. — 

 Triadica- sinensis LouK. Fl. Cochinch. 610. — 

 Stillingia sebifera MiOHx. Fl. Bor.-Amer. ii. 213. 

 — S. sinensis H. Bn. Euphorb. 512, t. 7, fig. 

 26-30. — Stillingjteetia sebifera BoJ. Sort. Mavir. 

 284. 



' Echinus philippinensis H. Bn. in Adansonia, 

 vi. 314. — Sottlera tinctoria W. Spec. iv. 832. 

 Gdib. op. cit. ii. 367, fig. 462. — Croton philip- 

 pinensis Lamk. Diet. ii. 206. — C punetatus Eetz, 

 Obs. V. 30.— C. eoccineus 'Vasi,, Symb. ii. 97. — 



C. montamis W. Spec. iv. 615. — Mallotus philip- 

 pinensis M. Abg. in Zinneea (1866), 196 ; Prodr, 

 980, n. 68. 



