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acrid, milky, bitter juice; the root is emetic, and the dried branches are 
used medicinally. 7 
PERESKIA ACULEATA.—The Barbadoes gooseberry; belongs to the 
family Cactacew; grows about fifteen feet in height, and produces 
yellow- colored, eatable, and pleasant-tasted fruit, which is used in the 
West Indies for making preserves. 
PERSEA GRATISSIMA. “—The Avocado or Pellfeeteae pear; is a common 
tree in the West Indies. The fruits are pear-shaped, covered with a 
brownish-green or purple skin. They are highly esteemed where grown, 
but strangers do not relish them. They contain alarge quantity of firm 
pulp, possessing a buttery or marrow-like taste, and are frequently called 
vegetable marrow. They are usually eaten with spice, lime-juice, pepper, 
and salt. An abundance of oil, for burning and for soap-making, may 
be obtained from the pulp. The seeds yield a deep, indelible. lack 
stain, and are used for marking linen. 
PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA.—The Date palm; is very extensively grown 
for its fruit, which affords the principal food for a large portion of the 
inhabitants of Africa, Asia, and Southern Europe, and likewise of the 
various domestic animals—dogs, horses, and camels. being alike partial 
to it. The tree attains to a great age, and bears annually for two hun- 
dred years. The huts of the poorer classes are constructed of the 
leaves; the fiber surrounding the bases of their stalks is used for 
making ropes and coarse cloth; the stalks are used for the manufacture 
of baskets, brooms, crates, walking-sticks, &c., and the wood for build- 
ing substantial houses ; the heart of young leaves is eaten as a vege- 
table; the sap affords an intoxicating beverage. It may further be 
mentioned that the Date was, probably, the palm which supplied the 
‘* branches of palm trees” mentioned by St. John (xii, 13) as having 
been carried by the people who went to meet Christ on his triumphal 
entry into Jerusalem, and from whieh Palm Sunday takes its name. 
PHORMIUM TENAX.—This plant is called New Zealand Flax, on 
account of the leaves containing alarge quantity of strong, useful fiber, 
which is used by the natives of that country for making strings, ropes, 
and articles of clothing. The plant could be grown in this climate, and 
would, no doubt, be largely cultivated, if some efficient mode of sepa- 
rating the fiber could be discovered. 
PHOTINIA JAPONICA.-—The Japanese Medlar, or Chinese Lo-quat; bears 
a small oval fruit of an orange color when ripe, having a pleasant sub- 
acid flavor. It stands ordinary winters in this climate, and forms a fine 
evergreen, medium-sized tree. j 
PHYSOSTIGMA VENENOSUM.—A strong, climbing leguminous plant, 
the seeds of which are highly poisonous, “and are employed by the na- 
tives of Old Calabar as an ordeal. Persons suspected of witcheraft or 
other crimes are compelled to eat them until they vomit or die—the 
former being regarded as proof of innocence, and the latter of guilt. 
Recently the seeds have been found to act powerfully in diseases of the 
eye. 
PHYTELEPHAS MACROCARPA.—The vegetable Ivory plant; is a native 
of the northern parts of South America. The fruit consists of a collec- 
tion of six or seven drupes; each drupe contains from six to nine seeds, 
the vegetable ivory of commerce. The seed at first contains a clear, in- 
sipid liquid ; ; afterward it becomes milky and sweet, and changes by de- 
grees until it becomes hard as ivory. 
PICRASMA EXCELSA.—This yields the bitter wood known as Jamaica 
Quassia. The tree is common in Jamaica, where it attains the height of 
50 feet. “The wood is of a whitish or yellow color, and has an intensely 
