672 CXCIII. MORE^. 



Tibet, Kashmir, &c. The Paper Mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), a dioecious tree, cultivated in China 

 and Japan, has been introduced into European gardens. Its leaves are remarkable for their poly- 

 morphism ; the fleshy gynophore of the fruit is insipid ; the fibrous barli of its stem is used to make 

 Chinese paper. From the bark of another species of Broussonetia the South Sea Islanders fabricate their 

 clothing (Tappa). 



The fruit of Madura tinctoria, a native of the Antilles and Mexico, is used like that of our Mulberry.' 

 Its hard, compact wood takes a fine polish, and miglit be very useful in cabinet-making, but it is exclu- 

 sively used for dyeing, as Fustic. M. aurantiaca is a small North American tree, which yields the flexible 

 and very elastic Bow-wood. Its fruit, the Osage Orange, contains a yellow foetid juice, with which the 

 Indians paint their faces when they go to war. 



Figs are trees or climbing shrubs ; the principal species is Fioiis Caricu, cultivated throughout the 

 Mediterranean region. Its fleshy receptacle, the Fig, whether fresh or dried, is an agreeable' and very 

 nutritious food, and an emollient medicine. By incision its bark yields an acrid and caustic milk, 

 containing a considerable quantity of India-rubber. Certain tropical Figs contain much larger quantities 

 of this milk ; as the India-rubber Fig (F. elastica), the Banyan or Bo-tree {F. indica), and the Sacred Fig 

 {F. religiosa) [all Indian species]. Of these the Banyan is a large evergreen tree, the adventitious roots of 

 which descend to the earth, root there, and form arcades which extend on all sides, far from the trunk. 

 A famous Banyan on the Nerbudda thus has a circumference of 2,000 feet, and 320 columns formed by 

 adventitious roots. Some Chinese [and Indian] Figs are the food of the Lac, an hemipterous insect (Coccus 

 Laced). The females are crowded so densely on the young branches as to leave no spaces, and exude from 

 their bodies a resinous substance (Lac) which is used in the manufacture of sealing-wax and certain 

 varnishes. F. 8ycomm-ua is a widely spread Egyptian tree. Its wood is very light, and supposed to 

 be incorruptible, whence the ancient Egyptians used it for mummy-cases. Dorstenia differs from Ficus in 

 the receptacle of the flowers being but slightly concave. The root of D. braziliensis has a faint and agree- 

 able aroma ; it is employed in Brazil against the bite of venomous serpents, whence its Spanish name 

 Cimt7'ai/erva, 



ArtocarpecB,^ which we have annexed to Morece, are spread over all equatorial regions. 



Most Artocarpem contain a milky juice, which exhibits the most opposite properties and even in the 

 same genus ; thus it is innocuous in Antiaria innociia, but acrid, caustic and poisonous in A. toxicaria, the 

 viscid juice of which, the Antiar of the Javanese, is obtained by incisions In the bark, and hardens into a 

 gum-resin, with which the Malays prepare the poison-upas, to poison their arrows and cj-is. This Upas 

 differs from the equally deadly Strychnos Tieute of the Javanese, and the curare of Guiana (also yielded by 

 a Strychnos ; see page 557), in acting on the organs of circulation, while the Strychnos acts on the nervous 

 system. [Another species of Antiaris {A. saccidora, of Malabar), has so tough a bark that sacks (used for 

 rice, &C.) are made by removing it from truncheons of the trunk or branches, merely leaving a thin section 

 of the wood to serve as the bottom of the sack.] 



The Breadfruit-tree (Artocarpus incita) provides the South Sea Islanders with an abundant, whole- 

 some and agreeable food. Its entire fruit, composed of carpels agglomerated on a fleshy receptacle, is as 

 large as a man's head. It is gathered before it is perfectly ripe, when it consists of a white and fari- 

 naceous flesh (produced by the united calyces), and is sliced, slightly baked on cinders, and eaten like 

 bread, of which it has somewhat the taste. The French and English have propagated this precious fruit 

 over the torrid zone. The fruit of A. integrifolia is not less esteemed [it is a very inferior fruit, not eaten 

 by Europeans] ; its firm and sugary pulp is much sought by the Creoles, in spite of its disaoreeable smell. 

 Its seeds are eaten fried or boiled, as are also those of Brosimum AKcastrum, which in Jamaica takes the 

 place of bread amongst the poor. Colombia possesses another tree of the same family, which is one 

 of the most wonderful vegetable productions . This, the Cow-tree, or Palo de Leche (Gfalactodendron 

 utile), the inhabitants of the Cordilleras of Venezuela regularly milk, procuring by incision an enormous 

 quantity of a white and somewhat viscous liquid, presenting all the physical properties of the best miUt, 

 with a slight balsamic odour. It contains, besides sugar and albumine, a large proportion of a fatty waxy 

 matter to which it appears to owe its principal properties ; by evaporation in a water-bath an extract 

 similar to frangipani is obtained. 



The wood of Artocarpus is used in India and Cochin China for furniture and cabinet work. That of 



