26 
of India. In Borneo the bark and young shoots are used to dye cotton 
black, for which purpose they are boiled with alum. The fruits are 
made into sweetmeat, with sugar, or eaten raw, but they are exceedingly 
acid; when ripe and dry, they are used, in medicine, under the name of | 
_Myrobalam Emblict. The natives of Travancore have a notion that the 
plant imparts a pleasant flavor to water, and therefore place branches of 
the tree in their wells, especially when the water is charged with an ac- 
cumulation of impure vegetable matter. 
EMPETRUM NIGRUM.—The Crowberry. This small, shrubby plant is 
a native of moors and hill-sides, on the north of the eastern continent. 
It affords abundant food for the moor game in the north of Scotland, 
and the berries are eaten by the Highlanders, and also by the Russians, 
it extending into that country. The seeds furnish a purplish dye, when 
boiled in alum-water. 
ENCKEA UNGUICULATA.—A plant of the family Piperacew, having 
an aromatic fruit like a berry, with a thick rind. The roots are used 
medicinally in Brazil. 
ENTADA SCANDENS.—This Leguminous plant has remarkable pods, 
which often measure six or eight feet in length. The seeds are about 
two inches across, and half an inch thick, and have a hard, woody, and 
beautifully polished shell, of a dark-brown or purplish color. These 
seeds are frequently converted into snuff-boxes and other articles, and 
in the Indian bazaars they are used as weights. 
EPERUA FALCATA.—The Wallaba tree of Guiana. The wood is of a 
light-brown color, marked with whitish streaks, hard and heavy; being 
impregnated with a resinous oil, it is very durable. The bark is bitter, 
and the Indians employ a decoction of it as an emetic. A resinous gum 
is also produced, which has the reputation of healing wounds. 
ERIODENDRON ANFRACTUOSUM.—The Silk-Cotton, or God tree of the 
West Indies. The fruit is a capsule, filled with a beautiful silky fiber, 
which is very elastic, but, as it cannot be woven, it is only used for stuf- 
fing cushions. 
ERYTHRINA UMBROSA.—This is a favorite tree for growing in masses, 
for the purpose of sheltering cocoa-nut plantations, and inducing a proper 
degree of moisture in their neighborhood. 
ERYtHROXYLON Coca.—The leaves of this plant, under the name of 
Coca, are much used by the inhabitants of South America as a mastica- 
tory. It forms an article of commerce among the Indians, who carefully 
dry the leaves and use them daily. Their use, in moderation, acts as a 
stimulant to the nervous system, and enables those who chew them to 
perform long journeys without any other food. It has been found by 
analysis that the leaves contain a portion of theine, more than the ordi- 
nary percentage found in Chinese tea. 
KUCALYPILUS AMYGDALINA.—The Peppermint tree; is a native of Tas- 
mania; produces a thin transparent oil possessed of a pungent odor re- 
sembling oil of lemons, and tasting like camphor, and has great solvent 
properties. The genus Eucalyptus is extensive and valuable. The 
greater portion form large trees, known in Australia as Gum trees. 
EK. GLOBULUS.—The blue gum, is a rapid-growing tree, attaining to a 
large size. Recently it has attracted attention, and gained some repute 
in medicine as an anti-periodic. The leaves have also been applied to 
wounds with some success. It produces a strong camphor-smelling oil, 
which has a mint-like taste, not at all disagreeable. 
E. GIGANTEA.—The stringy bark gum furnishes a strong durable 
timber, used for ship-building and other purposes. . robusta contains 
large cavities in its stem, between the annual concentric circles of wood, 
