198 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



very odorous species cultivated nearly throughout Polynesia to supply 

 the natives with a stimulant and tonic medicine. The Ivies have 

 been esteemed in medicine. The wood and fruit of our common 

 Ivyi (fig. 208-218) are reputed purgative, diaphoretic and evacuant. 

 Its root was used in cutaneous and parasitic maladies ; the leaves 

 served as a dressing for wounds, burns and issues. But the bitter, 

 aromatic, stimulant and tonic resin extracted from the stem ^ was 

 especially prized. The place which the Ivy, a plant consecrated to 

 Bacchus, held among the symbols of ancient mythology is well known. 

 It plays a great part in the decoration of our gardens, where are 

 cultivated, as ornamental plants, some large herbaceous Umbelliferce, 

 such as Heracleum, Angelica, Ferula. But the plants of this family 

 most remarkable for their habit and leaves are the greenhouse 

 Araliem now abundant m our conservatories, particularly A. japonica 

 and papyrifera, spinosa, edulis, mandshurica, the Oceanic Panax, 

 Didymopanax, Meryta, Schefflera, Gastonia, Cussonia,^ and the beautiful 

 clivabmg Plerandra, native of the forests of eastern India, which has 

 received the generic name of Tubidanthus. 



' Medera Selix L. Spec. 292. — DC. Prodr. iv. leaves hare teen employed in tanning. The 



261. — Sow. JEngl. Dot. t. 1267. — Koch, Syn. Fl. porous wood of the roots forms filters. Shoe- 



Germ. 321.— Seem. Journ. Bot. ii. 306. — Mek. makers sharpen their knives on it. 



et Del. Diet. Mat. Med. iii. 456.— GuiB. he. cit. ^ At the Cape C. paniculata is esteemed forits 



183. — Caz. pi. Med. Indig. (ed. 3) 583. — H. Bn. wood, which, not being very hard, is used in 



Dret. Eneycl. 8c. Med. ser. 2, ii. 550. — M.poetica cabinet- work. In the Moluccas Osnwxylin um- 



C. Bauh. — H. DiovysiasJ. Batjh. — H.poetarum belliferum (0. avnhoinense MiQ. — Aralia wmhelli' 



Bektol. — if. chrysocarpa Walsh. — H. commu- fera Lamk.) is mentioned for its odorous wood, 



nis Gray, Arr. Brit. PI. (1821) 491. from which is extracted a useful gum-resin 



2 The fruit is emeto-cathartio, febrifuge, em- called Saruru (whence by corruption the name 



menagogic. It is reported to have been extolled Gastonia mururoides Eoxb. this plant having 



at the time of the great plague of London. It nothing in common with Swurwus). 

 is used to kill vermin. The branches and 



