172 THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. [Oct'r. 



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(*) tries where its manufacture forms an important portion of the staple r@ 



^occupation of the inhabitants. The value of sea weed as a manure is 

 also well known, and on most of the shores washed by the sea where \ 

 it is deposited, it makes up a portion of the actual value of the ad- l 

 joining farms. Another sort of sea weed called sloke is used as food 

 in times of scarcity, being boiled like any other vegetable. Some of 

 the fresh water Algee are so minute as to be scarcely distinguished by 

 the naked eye in the water, and in one instance so abundant is a pe- 

 culiar species in a fresh water lake as to give a green tint to the en- 

 tire water, and it is named from that circumstance Glasslough, or 

 Green lake. The green Algae is minutely distributed through the wa- 

 ter. Amongst mushrooms much attention is paid to the cultivation 

 of several sorts. The eatable mushroom Agaricus campestris is uni- 

 versally sought after and valued in cookery, and is successfully culti- 

 vated from spawn prepared by the gardener. Another species is 

 much used in Kamschatka by the peasants to produce intoxication and 

 pleasant sensations akin to those produced by opium. It is called 

 Amanita muscaria, its effects on the nervous system are very re- 

 markable. Another very curious form is the Sphceria Robertsii, a 

 fungus growing from the head of a caterpillar from sporules inhaled 

 by it until the animal is destroyed by the growth of the fungus. The 

 Ergot of rye is another familiar instance of a species of fungus very 

 destructive to one of our most useful cereal crops, and which has oc- 

 cupied the attention of scientific men from time to time in enquiries 

 as to its progress in its attacks on the grain of the husbandman. But 

 although much attention is drawn by these inferior objects of the 

 vegetable kingdom, much more is given to those peculiar forms which 

 arrest the attention by their size and form, their beauty and fragrance. 

 Many plants produce poisons of the most acrid nature, which can be 

 so modified by cooking as to become harmless and even nutritious. 

 The Tapioca plant or cassava, Manihot utillissima, or Jatropha Man- 

 ihot is furnished with an acrid juice of the most poisonous quality, 

 which if even allowed to enter the flesh causes excessive irritation 

 and sometimes mortification,* yet this plant can be converted into a 

 useful and delicate article of food. The natural order to which it 

 belongs is well known for its dangerous properties — all the individuals 

 composing it are furnished with a milky juice which conveys some 

 suspicion of their poisonous nature. An individual of this order 

 called the sand box tree, Hum crepitans, is peculiar from the fact that 

 the ripe fruit bursts suddenly, emitting a kind of dust — the juice of 

 the plant is quite fatal when taken internally. This as well as the 

 Tapioca plant is a native of the forests of South America. The Man- 

 chineel is also famous for its deadly properties — it is supposed that 

 persons have died merely from sleeping beneath it. It is a matter of 

 certainty however, that its juice burns intensely the skin on which it 

 may fall ; it is called by botanists Hippomane mancineUa. In this 

 suspicious order of Euphorbias is also found the Euphorbia caput 

 Medusa, or Medusa's head, so called from the resemblance of its 

 branching head to the fabled Medusa, it is not however quite as pro- 

 lific as that monster. The tree from which the bottle India Rubber, 

 is procured is also found in this section (Siphonia elastica.) The bot- 

 tles are procured by smearing over repeatedly with the juice, clay 

 (V moulds of the form desired, the action of the atmosphere inspissates k 

 /~^the juice. This tree is familiar to most persons in this neighborhood £\ 

 {% as the gum tree. The Croton from which the celebrated purgative^) 



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