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The Soap Berry Family. 



(Sapindace^.) 



Trees or shrubs, often climbing by the aid of tendrils, 

 rarely herbs. Leaves alternate, variously winged, or digi- 

 tate, rarely simple. Flowers solitary, or in paniculate 

 racemes, unisexual or bisexual. Fruit a valved 3 -celled 

 capsule, containing 1 or 2 seeds ; sometimes having a wing 

 appendage, rarely fleshy, or membranous, and inflated. 



This family contains nearly 400 species, all widely distri- 

 buted throughout the Tropical zone. In Northern Asia and 

 America it is represented by the genus JEsculus, and in 

 Australia by Dodoneaa. Some of them are of a highly 

 poisonous nature, while others produce excellent dessert 

 fruits in their respective countries. 



Horse Chestnut {JEsculus Hippocastanum). Supposed to 

 be a native of the Himalayan range of North Western India, 

 and to have gradually found its way westward to Europe ; it 

 has been cultivated in this country probably for nearly two 

 hundred and fifty years. Although a large-growing tree, its 

 timber is soft and of little value; its large nuts, which it 

 produces in great abundance, are useful in affording food for 

 horses, sheep, and goats ; and in France large manufactories 

 have been established for procuring starch from them. 



Soap Berry {Sajnndus Sapmaria). A tree, with winged 

 leaves and winged rachis, native of the West Indies and of 

 Tropical America generally. Its fruit is the size of large 

 gooseberries, formed of a thick, tough skin, loosely enclosing 

 a hard, globose seed. It takes the name of Soap Berry from 

 the rind being saponaceous ; it has long been in general use 

 in the West Indies as a substitute for soap. The hard 

 seeds are used for making rosaries, necklaces, &c. ; and at 

 one time were imported for making buttons. In India, an 

 oil, called Soap Nut Oil, is extracted from S. emarginatus. 

 S. ruhiginosa is a large tree found in the Pegu forests, where 

 it attains a girth of 3 or 4 feet, having white- coloured wood. 



