MONCECIA 
15 ? 
If? 1 genera. 
74 Hippomanet 
75 Hura 
7 6 Jatrophaf 
77 Plukenesia 
78 Rieinus£ 
79 Sterculia 
80 Stillingig. 
8J, Gupressus§ 
82 Gnetran 
83 JPinusJI 
84 Thuja 
N° of Species in 
growth, species. Native of Britain. 
t 3 W. Indies 
s 1 Mexico 
§ & h 9 America, Africa, &e. 
s I India 
h 4 E. & W. Indies 
§ 3 India 
s 1 Carolina 
Amentum. 
t 6 Crete, Japan, Levant 
s I India 
% 12 Canada, India Brit. 3 
t 4 Canada, E. & W. Indies 
$ The manphineel tree (hippomane mancinella) is one of the most poisonous 
frees that grows.; not only the fruit, but the wood and every,part is noxious. The 
Indians use the milk or juice to poison their arrows* 
f The root of the manihoi ov manioc (jatropha manihot), properly prepared, is 
much used in the W. indies for bread, then called cassada , and esteemed very 
wholesome; although in its recent state it is said to be a strong poison : but the 
port that grows in Africa is often eaten raw without any ill effect, and from the 
ptarch of the root is made a granulated powder, called tqpioca, which, dissolved in 
fapt water, is said to be very nourishing. 
t An oil, called castor oil , i$ the West Indies, is expressed from the seed of the 
ricinus. communis , formerly called pctlma christi , or agnus castus . 
§ The wood of cypress (c upressus semp&rvirens) is almost incorruptible either in 
air or water. The coffins in which the Athenians used to bury their heroes; Thu¬ 
cydides says, were made of this wood ; as were likewise the chests containing the 
Egyptian mummies.—See note to ficus* The doors of St. Peter’s church, at 
Rome, were originally of the same wood, but after lasting eleven hundred years, 
without any visible tendency to decay, they were Removed by order of Pope Euge- 
hius the 4th, and gates of brass substituted in their place. Milne's Bot. Diet . 
Jj Venice turpentine is from the larch tree (pinus larix); Burgundy pitch is from 
the fir (pinus abies). 
Former botanists, before Linnseus, distinguished the fir from the pine 9 by the 
insertion of the leaves; those of the fir are produced singly from the branches; those 
of the pine grow by twos, threes, or fives, out of a little sheath that surrounds their 
base, and when fitted together, they form a cylinder,—Linnaeus hath included both 
ports under one genus (pinus), but hath made the same distinction in the species as 
above; except having added the cedar and larch to the same genus , the leaves of 
which proceed from a sheath, but growing in bunches, he calls fascicled. —Great 
varieties proceed from the seeds of the several species of the pine and fit. 
Pinus pinea (the stone pine) hath in general only two leaves in a sheath, but a 
few intermixed have three.—The kernels of this pine are said to be frequently used 
in the winter desserts of the table both in France and Italy. 
The kernels of the pine are used in medicine, and sometimes for food ; and it is 
paid in Lapland a nourishing bread is made of the pounded bark. 
