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7 
flowers is used in curing dimness of sight. The bark is powerfully 
tonic and bitter, and considered effective in small-pox. Being a rapid 
grower, and but thinly covered with leaves, the tree is used for the 
purpose of training Betel Pepper. 
AGAVE AMERICANA.—This plant is commonly known as American 
Aloe; but it is not a member of that family, as it claims kindred with 
the Amaryllis tribe of plants. It grows naturally in a wide range of 
climate, from the plains in South America to elevations of ten thousand 
feet. It furnishes a variety of products. The plants form impenetrable 
fences; the leaves furnish fibers of various qualities, from the fine thread 
known as pita-thread, which is used for twine, to the coarse fibers 
used for ropes and cables. Humboldt describes a bridge of upward of one 
hundred and thirty feet span over the Chimbo in Quito, of which the 
main ropes (four inches in diameter) were made of this fiber. It is also 
used for making paper. The juice, when the watery part is evaporated, 
forms a good soap, (as detergent as Castile,) and will mix and form a 
lather with salt water as well as with fresh. The sap from the heart- 
leaves is formed into pulque. This sap is sour, but has sufficient sugar 
and mucilage for fermentation. This vinous beverage has a filthy odor ; 
but those who can overcome the aversion to this fetid smell indulge 
largely in the liquor. <A very intoxicating brandy is made from it. 
Razor-strops are made from the leaves; they are also used for cleaning 
and scouring pewter. 
AGAVE SISALANA.—The Sisal Hemp plant was introduced into Florida 
many years ago, for the sake of its fiber, but its cultivation has not been 
prosecuted to a commercial sucges8. Like many others of the best veg- 
etable fibers found in leaves, it contains a gummy substance, which pre- 
vents the easy separation of the fiber from the pulp. 
ALEURITES MoLtuccaNna.—The Candleberry tree, much cultivated in 
tropical countries for the sake of its nuts. The nuts or kernels, when 
dried and stuck on a reed, are used by the Polynesians as a substitute 
for candles and as an article of food; they are said to taste like walnuts. 
When pressed, they yield largely of pure palatable oil, used as a dry- 
ing-oil for paint, and known as artists’ oil. The cake, after the oil has 
been expressed, is a favorite food for cattle. Therootof the tree affords 
a brown dye, which is used to dye cloths. 
ALGAROBIA GLANDULOSA.—The Mezquit tree, of Texas, occasionally 
reaches a height of 25 to 30 feet. It yields very hard, durable wood, 
and affords a large quantity of gum resembling gum-arabic, and answer- 
ing every purpose of that gum; but as it has not to be imported, it is 
not much used. 
ALLAMANDA CATHARTICA.—This plant belongs to the family of 
Apocynacee, Which contains many poisonous species. It is often eculti- 
rated for the beauty of its flowers; the leaves are considered a valua- 
ble cathartic, in moderate doses, especially in the cure of painters’ colic ; 
in large doses they are violently emetic. It is a native of South Amer- 
ica. 
ALOE SOCOTRINA.—Bitter Aloe. <A plant of the Lily family, which 
furnishes the finest aloes. The bitter, resinous juice is stored up in 
‘greenish vessels, lying beneath the skin of the leaf, so that when the 
leaves are cut transversely, the juice exudes, and is gradually evapora- 
ted to a firm consistence. The inferior kinds of aloes are prepared by 
pressing the leaves, when the resinous juice becomes mixed with the 
mucilaginous fluid trom the central part of the leaves, and thus is pro- 
portionately deteriorated. Sometimes the leaves are eut and boiled, 
and the decoction evaporated to a proper consistence. This drug isim- 
