SAPINDAOE^. 389 



With all these useful products fuinished Iby the parts of fructifica- 

 tion of the Sapindacece, we find, on the other hand, dangerous and 

 highly poisonous substances. The majority of the American species 

 of Serjania and Paullinia are poisonous or at least doubtful. The 

 juice of >S^. lethalis ' is considered in Brazil to be narcotic. The 

 Indians use the plant to intoxicate fish. S. noma ^ is supposed to 

 poison cattle. It is from different species of Serjania that, in Brazil, 

 the Lecheguana wasp doubtless gathers the materials of that honey 

 of which A. Saint-Hilaire himself experienced the pernicious 

 effects described by him in a graphic and celebrated narrative.^ 

 Magonia pubescens * (fig. 399-403) is quite as much feared in the 

 same country ; its leaves serve, it is said, to depopiilate the water* 

 courses, and the honey gathered from its flowers is also considered to 

 be highly doubtful.^ Paullinia pinnata^^ a species found ia both 

 America and tropical Africa, is considered, in the latter country espe- 

 cially, to be a terrible poison. The negroes employ its roots and 

 seeds. The Indians who inhabit the Brazilian forests squeeze out, it 

 is said, the juice of the leaves and use them as a vulnerary. On the 

 banks of the Orinoco, P. Cupana '' is considered to be wholesome. A 

 sort of. yellowish paste obtained from the bruised leaves of this 

 plant by macerating them in water, wrapped, with manioc flour, in 

 the leaves of the Palm or Banana, is mixed with drinking water. 

 The species of Dodonoea sometimes have peculiar properties, owing 

 doubtless to the resinous substance exuding from several species. 

 J), viscosa,^ growing in all the warm countries of the globe, is used to 

 prepare astringent baths and fomentations. The wood of J), dioica 

 EoxB. is prescribed ia India for flatulent colics. At the Gape, D. 

 Thunbergiana is considered to be a mUd purgative and febrifuge. 

 There are in this family oily plants, such as Alectryon excelsum (flg. 

 365), a tree from New Zealand, Pappcea, ^sculus, Cardiospermum,^ 



' A. S. H. Fl. Hem. Bres. 235 ; Fl. Bras. senegalensis J. in Ann. Mns. iv. 348. — P. Afri- 



Mer.\.Z&1. — EoSENTH. op. cit. 777. PI. Aus- eana G. Don, Gen. Syst. i. 661. — P. uvata 



tralis A. S. H. (in Mem. Mus. xii. 334) is Schijm. et Thonn. Beskr. 196. Also employed 



equally poisonoua. in Brazil and for ophthalmia and amaurosis. P. 



- A. S. H. loe. cit. ii. 363. grandiflora A. S. H., a Brazilian species, is 



^ JRelationd^tmempoisonnement causeptir lamiel considered in that country to have the same 



de la GnSpe Lecheguana (in MSm. Mus. xii. properties. 



(1825), 293). ■ H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Spec. v. 117. 



* A. 8. H. Fl. Bras. Mer. i. 394. M. glabrata ' L. Mantiss. 238 (part.).— DC. Prodr. i. 



A. S. H. has the same properties. 616. 



5 Serjania mexicana W. (^Paullinia mexieana ' The Chinese are said to employ as a pot- 



L.), an acrid, dangerous plant used in medicine herh the Heart Pea or C. Malicacahum (fig. 



as an antisyphilitic and antirheumatio. 382), of which they eat the leaves, fruit, and 



" L. Spec. 366.— DC. Prodr. i. 604, n. 5.— P. 



