338 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



very different, and the scales are imbricated in the 

 opposite direction ; nevertheless they might pass for 

 an imitation. 



If we go still deeper into the structure of plants 

 and investigate their secretions, we shall encounter 

 here and there coincidences of strange significance. 

 In the lettuce is repeated the narcotic milky juice of 

 the poppy. In the American Loasacece the stinging 

 properties of the nettles. In the figs (Ficus) of 

 India, the rubber trees of Para (Siphonid) and the 

 Urceolas of Asia, we have in three different families, 

 and to a certain extent in some others, plants 

 furnishing the same kind of milky juice which con- 

 solidates into caoutchouc, or india-rubber. The acrid 

 juice which is secreted by some of the Anacardiacecz 

 has its analogue in the Euphorbiacetz. The smoke of 

 the wood of Exccecaria agallocha when burnt is said 

 to affect the eyes with intolerable pain ; and so also 

 the manchineel, which belongs to the same family, 

 and that of another tree, referred to the Anacar- 

 diaceoe. The native in Brazil poisons his arrows 

 with the juice of the mandioca plant, M - hich belongs 

 to the Euphorbiacese ; the Fiji Islanders with that of 

 an A ntiaris, which is of the bread fruit family ; and 

 on the Orinoco the famous curare is obtained from a 

 Strychnos. The ancient Briton obtained his blue 

 dye from the woad {Isatis tinctorid), the Hindoo, 

 and other Asiatics, from the indigo plant, and the 



