1076 
NATURAL ARRANGEMENT. 
Order XCVI. SAPOTE^. 
These are also shrubs, which are mostly evergreen, and natives of the warmer regions of the world. Some 
of the Bumelias are found in the southern states of N. America, but none of the order exists in Europe. 
They are chiefly valuable for their fruit, which, in many cases, contributes richly to the dessert. Mimusops 
el6ng\, Imbricaria malabarica, Sideroxylon spinosum, are all of this description ; the star apples of the West 
Indies, the produce of several species of Chrysoph^llum, and particularly of C. cainito, are esteemed delicious ; 
and the Medlars, Lucumas, and Sapotillas of equinoctial America, all the fruit of different kinds of A'chras, 
are among the most valuable productions of the western world. The seeds of all the order are oily : those of 
A'chras sap6ta are accounted diuretic and aperient. Their oil is not fluid, but so concrete as to have the 
appearance and consistence of butter, whence the name of butter-tree has been applied to diflferent species 
both in Africa and India. The most famous of this description is the Indian raava, mahva, or madhuca, the 
Bassia butyracea of botanists ; the seeds of which are so oleaginous, that a single tree has been known to 
produce three quintals of oil ; the dried flowers of the same tree are mixed by some Indians with their food, 
and a kind of spirit is distilled from them by others. The juice of all the sapotas is milky, but not acrid and 
poisonous like that of most other lactescent orders, but, on the contrary, yielding a wholesome beverage or 
food. Here is supposed to belong the famous Palo de Vaca, or Cowtree of South America, the trees of which 
are regularly milked by the inhabitants of the districts in which it grows. According to Brown, the bark of 
some of the A'chrases is so astringent and febrifugal as to be substituted for quinquina. 
423 Bumelia W. 426 Jacquinia W. 434 Manglilla Jitss. 1024 Inoc&rpus W. 
424 Chrysophyllum W. 427 A'chras W. 881 Mimusops W. 1074 B&ssia W. 
425 Sideroxylon W. 433 Sersalisia R. Br. 
Order XCVII. SYMPLOCACEiE. 
Shrubs with serrated leaves, turning yellow in drying, and small white flowers which are sometimes fragrant. 
The leaves of most of them are astringent; those of Alstonia tinge the saliva greenish yellow, of Symplocos 
tinctoria are used in America under the name of Sweet-leaf, for dying yellow. 
1614 Symplocos L. 
Order XCVIII. EBENACE^. 
Some of these are hardy trees or shrubs, with deciduous leaves and white flowers, natives of woods, moun- 
tains, and banks of streams in North America and Europe ; others are tropical evergreens. Among the 
former, the best known are the Snow-drop tree, or Halesi, with pendent shewy white blossoms ; and the 
different species of Styrax : of the latter, many of the Diospyruses' produce are eatable fruit ; as, for example, 
the Mabolo of the Phillippine Islands, which is as big as a peach, and the Kaki of Japan, which resembles an 
apricot. All these fruits are remarkable for their extreme austerity before maturity, and the necessity of 
letting them decay, like our medlars, before they are fit for table. These are also distinguished for the excessive 
hardness of their wood, and for the black colour it sometimes acquires when old, as the Ebony. The bark of 
Diospyros virginiana is used in North America in intermittent fevers. 
1035 Royena W. 2159 Diospyros W. 1081 Halesia TV. 
2086 Maba J. 1025 St:f rax W. 1105 ? Visnea W. 
Order XCIX. OLEIN^E. 
The olives are known by their monopetalous corolla, with a valvular aestivation, two stamens alternate with 
the segments, a bilocular ovarium with no discus at the base, and pendulous collateral ovula. They were 
formerly combined with the jasmines. They have all simple opposite leaves ; their flowers are either white, 
yellow, or purple, and frequently fragrant. The Phillyreas are among our finest evergreens, and the Lilac or 
Syringa perhaps at the head of hardy deciduous bushes. The ash is an anomalous genus which hardly belongs 
to the order. The seed of the olive contains so large a proportion of fixed oil, that it has long been one of 
the most important objects of cultivation in the South of Europe. The bark and leaves of many Oleinse are 
bitter and astringent ; these properties are particularly apparent in the ash, which has often been employed 
successfully as a febrifuge. From the exudation of many species of that genus, the mild purgative called 
manna is formed ; it is most commonly found upon the O'rnus. M. Decandolle remarks, that in proof of the 
natural atiinity of the plants here combined, and of the propriety of separating the jasmines from them, it has 
been found that all the olives as now restricted, will bud or graft upon one another, but not on the jasmines. 
Tims the lilac will graft on the ash, the Chionanthus, and the Fontanesia, and even upon Phillyrda latif61ia, 
and the olive will take upon the Phillyr^a, and even on the ash. 
32 O'lea W. 34 Chionanthus W. 07 Linoci^ra B. P. 69 O'rnus P. S. 
33 Phillyrda 36 LigtSstrum fV. 66 Fontanesia W. 2157 Fraxinus W. 
35 Notelze'a B. P. 37 Syringa JV. 
Order C. JASMINEiE. 
Fragrance is the predominant property of the jasmine, and has made it for ages the favourite of poets and 
of the people ; this arises from the presence of an oil which can be extracted so as to retain its perfume. In 
medicinal qualities, the Jasmines do not differ materially from the last ; they are neatly distinguished by 
botanists by the direction of their ovula which are erect in Jasmineae, and pendulous in Oleinse. 
38 Nyctanthes W. 39 Jasminum JV. 
Order CI. APOCYNE^. 
We now turn from the contemplation of plants endued with mild and agreeable properties and fragrant 
flowers, and often bearing food for man, to others which are among the most dangerous and fatal poisons ; 
whose juices, milky indeed, like the Cowtree, are not a wholesome and delicious beverage like those of Sapoteae, 
but on the contrary acrid, caustic, or bitter. They are readily known by the twisted direction of the segments 
of the corolla, which have been compared to the rays of a Catherine's wheel, whence they were called by 
Liinnseus, Contortse. By far the greatest part of the order consists of tropical trees and shrubs : a few 
Ap6cynums, Amsonias, and Vincas, are natives of the colder zones of the earth. Many are elegant climbers, 
as the different species of Echites and Melodinus. The splendid Oleander belongs to Nerium ; the different 
species of Plumieria, Cameraria, Strophanthus^ and Arduina are stove plants of the greatest beauty. The 
medicinal action of these plants is highly powerful. The Strychnos, or nux vomica tree, is remarkable for its 
bitterness and acrid deleterious effects, which are indicated not only when introduced into the stomach, but 
still more violently when absorbed into the system by inoculation. In general, the Apocynese are acrid, 
stimulating, and astringent ; these principles, when in excess, act so powerfully on the nerves as to produce 
stupefaction. The root of Ophioxylon is very bitter and purgative : under the name of snake-root it is used 
in India as an antidote to the bites of serpents. The bark of Cerbera Manghas is purgative ; of Echites 
antidysenterica, and the Wrightia of the same name, astringent and febrifugal ; the leaves of the Vinca are 
so astringent, that they have been used successfully in tanning ; those of Nerium oleander are said to abound 
in free gallic acid. The inspissated juice of a species of Cerbera, known in Mexico under the name of Ycotli, 
is a fatal poison. 
407 AUamanda IV. ill Nerium R. Br. 413 Echites R. Br. 415 Plumieria W. 
410 Vinca W. 412 Wrightia R. Br. 414 Ichnocarpus R. Br. 416 Strophanthus Dec. 
