166 
PolygamIA. 
N° of 
Species Hi 
N° 
General 
Growth* 
species. Native of 
Britain. 
2d. 
Monoclinians and males. 
2 
Acer* 
t 
17 
Crete, Japan, Amer. Brit. 2 
3 
Celtis 
t 
3 
France, E.&W. Indies 
4 
Gouania 
s 
1 
Domingo 
5 
Griselinia 
§ 
1 
6 
Mimosaf 
s 
55 
Africa, America 
7 
Ophioxyltim 
s, 
1 
Ceylon 
6 
Pennantia 
1 
9 
TerminaliaJ 
s 
2 
France^ E. Indies 
firit. i 
10 
Valantia 
h 
8 
Europe 
11 
Veratrum 
h 
3 
Russia 
near three broad; but when it hath once flowered* the stem soon dies to the 
ground. The fruit of both these trees is used for bread in the West Indies, and 
both have equally large leaves. Dr. Milne says the most antient authors called the 
fruit of the banana a jig; and it is supposed from the leaves of these trees our first 
parents in Paradise made for themselves aprons. 
* Acer saccharinum (the sugar maple) grows in North America, and is very com- 
mon in Canada, where there are two kinds, one called the 'swamp maple , from 
its growing on low ground ; the other, the mountain or curled maple , from its 
growing on high ground, and the wood being variegated with little stripes and curls. 
The former yields most sap in proportion to its size, but the sap does not afford so 
much sugar as the curled kind ; a pound of sugar may be obtained from two or 
three gallons of the curled maple, but it will take six or seven gallons of the swamp 
maple to procure the same quantity. A maple tree of about twenty inches in 
diameter, will commonly yield sap for five pounds of sugar each year. 
Travels through North America, by Isaac Weld, junr.—>1799. 
f The drug terra japonica is not an earth, but a concreted vegetable juice, partly 
gummy and partly resinous, from the mimosa catechu , and other plants. Gum- 
arabic is also from the mimosa nilotica. The gum-arabic which comes in the way 
Of trade, is not collected on trees, as is commonly imagined ; it is found by digging 
cavities at the foot of the old trees, particularly of the mimosa nilotica and Senegal, 
where large masses of the gum which have exsuded from the roots, perhaps during 
some ages, and which are detached from the base of the tree, are then discovered. 
Thodgh this gum bears the name of gum-arabic, it is chiefly obtained from Abys¬ 
sinia. The species of mimosa are with the greatest difficulty combined with the 
character of the genus. Some with calyx and corolla four-cleft, five-cleft, many- 
petaled, petalless.—Some with stamens four, five, ten, very many, rather two 
brotherhood.—Some with legume membranous, winged, berried, jointed * the 
seeds also vary in shape. See note to sensitive plants, in the Index . 
XBenzoinum (Benjamin) is a resin from terminalia benzoin, and is sometimes 
called assa-dulsis, in opposition to assa-fcetida .— Edin. Phar . Former botanists 
thought the laurus benzoin to be the true benzoin, but Linnaeus detected the error, 
and thought it to be the terminalia benzoin ; but, according to Mr. Dryander, 
Linnaeus is also mistaken, for he evidently finds it to be a species of the styrax f 
and gives a particular description of the tree growing in Sumatra. 
Phil . Trans . part 2d. vol. 78, for 1787® 
