NITTA OF ECONOMIC PLANTS. 287 



whicli is termed Atropine, but it is a useful and powerful 

 medicine when properly used. Like henbane, it has the power 

 of dilating the pupil of the eye. It is also called Dwal, and in 

 olden times Dwal Water was a favourite with ladies for remov- 

 ing freckles, hence its name Bella donna, meaning Fair Lady. 



Nipa {Ni^a fntticaiis), a remarkable plant growing in the 

 salt marshes of the Malayan Archipelago. It was at one time 

 classed amongst the palms, but is now included with the Ivory 

 Nut Palm in the family Phytelephase^e, and placed near Pan- 

 danace^e. The stem is about a foot thick, and lengthens in a 

 decumbent position in the miid, sending up winged leaves from 

 its apex, which attain a height of 8 to 12 feet. The most 

 remarkable part of this plant is its fruit, which is of an oval form 

 2 or 3 inches in length, similar to and presumed to be the same 

 as the fossil fruits found in the mud on the Island of Sheppey 

 at the mouth of the Thames. 



Nitre Bush. — Mtraria ScJiohri, iY. iridentata, and JST. Bil- 

 larduri, three closely-allied plants, but probably only forms of 

 one species. They are natives of the salt plains of Siberia, 

 region of the Caspian, Syria, and North Africa. They are 

 stiff, rigid, thorny shrubs, with thick, fleshy, simple leaves, the 

 whole presenting a forbidding aspect. They have tufts of small 

 flowers and fruits like the gooseberry, are sweet, and aie 

 supposed by some to be the fruit that sweetened the waters of 

 Marah, mentioned in Exodus, but there is no good ground for 

 this supposition, only that the fruits are abundant about Marah. 

 The genus Nitraria is placed by Hooker and Bentham in the 

 Bean Caper family (Zygophyllace^e), and is by some Greek 

 writers supposed to be the Lotos of the ancients. {See Lotos ) 



Nitta, or Nutta, a native name in Africa for Parhia africana, 

 a tree of the Mimosa section of the Bean family (Leguminos^). 

 It attains a height of 40 feet, having compound winged leaves, 

 consisting of many leaflets. It is a native of Western tropical 

 Africa and some parts of India, and has become naturalised in 

 the "West Indies. The pods grow in bunches, each containing 

 about 15 seeds, embedded in a yellowish sweet pulp, of which 



