THE HOT-HOUSES. 2o3 



makes a distinct genus under the name of noron- 

 hia ; the mahogany-tree ; the cecropia and coco- 

 loba (i), from the West Indies, remarkable 

 for the size of their leaves, which are buckler- 

 shaped, thin and silvery underneath, upon the 

 first, and on the second thick, coriaceous and 

 of a gloomy green ; the litchy of China, which 

 yields a very palatable fruit of a beautiful red 

 colour ; the cithareocylum, or fiddlewood, so 

 called from its eminent fitness for musical in- 

 struments; the sterculia fetida, a large tree of 

 the West Indies, with digitated leaves, whose 

 flowers are of an insupportable odour, though 

 an oil is extracted from the seeds ; the sa- 

 pium of the West Indies, as poisonous as the 

 manchineal ; the gardenia thunbergia, whose 

 flowers are more beautiful and odoriferous than 

 those of the Cape jessamine; the violet sugar- 

 cane of Otaheite, a species or variety, of quicker 

 growth than that of India ; begonias, of singular 

 appearance from the form and colour of their 

 leaves ; and lastly, superb indian fig-trees, among 

 which should be particularly noticed the ficus 

 elastic a, elastic gum fig-tree, the milk of which 

 forms the indian rubber, and the ficus macro- 



(1) The cocoloba uvifera is called grape-tree in the Antilles, because 

 its fruit which is of a very agreeable taste is borne in clusters resein 

 bling those of the vine though larger. 



