28 
when the pure tallow exudes in a liquid state, and soon hardens into a 
white, brittle mass. Candles made from it get soft in hot weather, which 
is prevented by coating them with insect-wax. <A liquid oil is obtained 
from the seeds by pressing. The tree yields a hard wood, used by the 
Chinese for printing-blocks, and its leaves are used in dyeing black. 
Exoconium PurGA.—tThis plant furnishes the true jalap-tubers of 
commerce. They owe their well-known purgative properties to their 
resinous ingredients. Various species of Ipomcea furnish a spurious 
kind of this drug, which is often put in the market as the genuine article. 
EXOSTEMMA CARIB#UM.—This West India plant has become natu- 
ralized in Southern Florida. It belongs to the Cinchona family, and is 
known as Jamaica bark. It is also known as Quinquina Caraibe. The 
bark is reputed to be a good febrifuge, and also to be employed as an 
emetic. It is supposed to contain some peculiar principle, as the frac- 
ture displays an abundance of small crystals. The capsules, before they 
are ripe, are very bitter, and their juice causes a burning itching on the 
lips. 
FERONIA ELEPHANTUM.—The Wood apple or Elephant Apple tree of 
India; belongs to the family Awrantiacee. It forms a large tree in Cey- 
lon, and yields a hard, heavy wood, of great strength. It yields a gum, 
which is mixed with other g gums, and sold under the name of Hast Indian 
gum-arabic. The fruit is about the size of an orange, and contains a 
pulpy flesh, which is edible, and a jelly is made from it, which is used 
in cases of dysentery. The leaves have an odor like that of anise, and 
the native India doctors employ them as a stomachic and carminative. 
FEUILLZA CORDIFOLIA.—The Sequa or Cacoon Antidote of Jamaica ; 
belongs to the Cucumber family, and climbs to a great height up the 
trunks of trees. The seeds are employed as a remedy m a “variety of 
diseases, and are considered an antidote against the effects of poison ; 
they also contain a quantity of semi-solid tatty oil, which is liberated 
by pressing and boiling them in water. 
FIcus INDICA.—The famous Banyan tree of history. Specimens of 
the Indian fig are mentioned as being of immense size. One in Bengal 
spreads over a diameter of three hundred and seventy feet. Another 
covered an area of seventeen hundred square yards. It is one of the 
sacred trees of the Hindoos. It was known to the ancients. Strabo de- 
scribes it, and it is noticed by Pliny. Milton also alludes to it as fol- 
lows 
Branching so broad along, that in the ground 
The bending twigs take root ; and daughters grow 
About the mother tree; a pillared shade, 
High overarched, with echoing walks between. 
There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 
Shelters in cool; and tends his pasturing herds 
At loop-holes cut through thickest shade. 
FICUS RELIGIOSA. ree of the Hindoos, which they hold 
in such veneration that, if a person cuts or lops off any of the branches, 
he is looked upon with as great abhorrence as if he had broken the leg 
of one of their equally sacred cows. The seeds areemployed by Indian 
doctors, in medicine. 
Ficus ELASTICA.—This afer’ is known as the India-rubber tree. It 
is a native of the East Indies, and is the chief source of caoutchoue 
from that quarter of the globe, although other species of Ficus yield this 
gum, as well as several plants of other genera. It is a plant of rapid 
growth, and, from the larger branches, roots descend to the earth, like 
the Banyan tree. 
