472 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
deadly substance, strychnia. Notwithstanding the exagge¬ 
rated statements that have been made regarding this tree, 
the upas of the Javenese, there remains no doubt that it is a 
plant of extreme virulence, even linen fabricated from its 
tough fibre being so acrid as to verify the story of the shirt 
of Nessus, for it excites the most distressing itching if 
insufficiently prepared.” 
Still the seeds are always wholesome, and the milky juices 
of some of the order point to caoutchouc as a product, and 
india rubber is actually made from some of the species as silk 
is elaborated from others. 
Professor Lindley gives us so curious a history of the 
Antiaris that we cannot forbear to quote it from the 
( Vegetable Kingdom. 5 He says : 
“ From a species of Antiaris (called by Mr. Nimmo 
Bepurandra saccidord) sacks are made in Western India by 
the following singular process:— f A branch is cut corre¬ 
sponding to the length and diameter of the sack wanted. 
It is soaked a little, and then beaten with clubs till the fibre 
separates from the wood. This done, the sack formed of the 
bark is turned inside out, and pulled down till the wood is 
sawed off, with the exception of a small piece left to form 
the bottom of the sack.’ ” 
The Brosimum grows to a fine tree, and, as remarked by 
Scomburgh, it is so hard that it can only be felled by the 
American axe. This wood is the famous snake-wood, so 
named from its curious markings. 
The Platanace2e, Planes , are well known in this country 
from the fine examples of it which grow about London. It 
would seem that no tree withstands the smoke and other 
atmospheric taints of large cities like the plane. It grows to 
a great height and size, and is always graceful in outline—a 
charm which is contributed to by its fine foliage. 
Of the planes we possess two forms—the Platanus occi¬ 
dentalism the western plane, and P. orientalism the eastern 
plane. 
In the former the leaves are lobate, in the latter the divi¬ 
sions are so deep as to be called palmate. They are probably 
not specifically distinct, or, if so, seem to approach each other 
by insensible gradations. Evelyn, in his f Silva,’ gives us 
the following quaint account of the genus: 
Platanus. —This beautiful and precious tree, anciently 
sacred to Plelena (and with which she crowned the Lar and 
•Genius of the place), was so doated on by Xerxes, that 
-dElian and other authors tell us he made a halt and stopped 
his prodigious army of seventeen hundred thousand soldiers, 
