THE TEREBINTH FAMILY. 



463 



yellow colour, wtiicli is burnt as a perfume, and is also used 

 as a remedy for tapeworm. 



The Terebinth family. 



(Terebinthace^.) 



Trees or shrubs, with alternate, simple, or winged leaves. 

 Flowers small, generally in spikes or racemes ; some uni- 

 sexual. Fruit generally a fleshy drupe, in some small and 

 berry-like, in others, as the Mango, large, containing a single 

 seed. 



A hundred or more species are recorded as belonging to 

 this family ; they are widely distributed within the tropics 

 of both hemispheres, also sparingly found in temperate 

 America, Europe, China, and Japan; they are numerous in 

 South Africa. All contain a very acrid poisonous juice of 

 the character of tui-pentine ; nevertheless, some produce eat- 

 able fruits, and others many useful substances. 



Mango [Mangifera indica). The Mango is a native of 

 India, and now cultivated in most warm countries for the 

 sake of its fine fruit, Avhich is about the size of a large pear. 

 It has narrow lance-shaped leaves, 6 to 9 inches long. A 

 good Mango is a delicious fruit, but an inferior one is 

 like tow dipped in turpentine. It is very easily culti- 

 vated in the hothouses of this country^ and has produced 

 fine fruit. 



Cashew Nut {^Anacardium occidentale). A large tree, 

 native of the West Indies, having strongly veined simple 

 oblong leaves. The fruit or nut is of kidney shape, about 

 an inch in diameter, seated on a fleshy receptacle or foot- 

 stalk. The nut is enclosed in a thick leathery skin con- 

 taining a black gummy fluid, which severely inflames the 

 mouth if unwarily bitten, but these eff'ects are prevented by 

 roasting. The fleshy receptacle is not unwholesome, and by 

 fermentation yields a pleasant wine ; a spirit is also distiUed 

 fi.'om it. A gum, like gum-arabic, is obtained from the tree, 



