703 I A T R 
Formerly they were almoft the only purgative medicine 
ufed among the Spaniards. It was cultivated in 1696 in 
the royal garden at Hampton Court; and flowers from 
June to Augult. 
10. latropha manihot, or eatable-rooted phyfic-nut, or 
cafl'ava: leaves palmate, lobes lanceolate, quite entire, 
even. The caffava (hoots from a tough, branched, \voody ? 
root, whofe flender collateral fibres iwell into thole fiefliy 
conic mafles for which the plant is cultivated ; and rifes,. 
by a flender woody knotted .ftalk, to the height of four, 
five, or fix, feet, fometimes more. Leaves alternate, 
fmoot'h, on long petioles, .feven-Iobed; lobes narrow at 
the bafe, growing broader till within an inch and a half 
of the top, where they diminilh to an acute point ; the 
•three middle lobes are about fix inches long, and two 
broad where broadeft; the two next are about an inch 
Ihorter, and the two outfide lobes are not more than three 
inches long ; the middle lobes' are finuated on each fide 
near the top, but the two outer are entire. The flowers 
are produced in umbels at the top of the ftalks, fome male 
and "others female; petals five, fp reading ; in the male 
flowers ftamens ten, united ; in the females, germ round 
e with three furrows in the -centre ; .ftyles three, two dif- 
tant, and one fifing between them Ihorter, all crowned by 
a Angle ftigma. Capfule roundilh." See this fpecies repre¬ 
sented in the annexed Engraving. Native of South Ame¬ 
rica. Pere Ro.chon fays that it was tranfported into the 
Ifle of France from Brafil. This plant, which formerly 
fupplied the greateft part of the fuftenance of the native 
Indians, is now raifed in molt parts of America, and ge¬ 
nerally confidered as a very beneficial vegetable, yielding 
an agreeable wholefome food ; and this, with its eafy 
growth and hardy nature, recommends it every where. 
It grows to perfection in about eight months, but the 
roots will remain a confiderable time in the ground unin¬ 
jured. They are generally dug up as occaiion requires, 
, and prepared for uie in the following manner : Being firll 
well waflied and fcraped, then rubbed to a pulpy farina 
on iron graters, they are put into ftrong linen or palmetto 
"bags, and.placed in a convenient prefs, until the juice is- 
■entirely exprefted ; the farina is then taken out and fpread 
in the fun for fome time, pounded in large wooden mor- 
-tars, run through coarfe fieves, and afterwards baked on 
iron plates placed over proper fires, and when hot be- 
-ftrewed with the fifted meal to whatever fize or thicknefs 
people pleale to have the cakes made ; this agglutinates 
as it heats, grows gradually harder, and, when thoroughly 
baked, is a wholefome well-tafted bread. Tapioca is 
alfo prepared ftom this root. The juice of the root is 
fweetilh, but more or lefs of a deleterious nature both 
frefti and in the putrid ftate, though it hardly retains any 
thing of this quality whilft it ferments. The milky juice 
fwallowed, or the root eaten without preparation, brings 
on convulfions, and occafions violent retching and purg¬ 
ing; it ads only on the nervous fyftem, and produces no 
inflammation in the ftomach ; but the ftomach of a man, 
or other animal, poifon-ed by it, appears to be contracted 
one half. However violent the rough juice may be found 
immediately after it is expreffed, it is certain that the 
roots are daily eaten by hogs without prejudice; and-a 
little mint-water and fait of wormwood will calm the molt 
violent fymptoms that arife on taking it, and prevent all 
bad conlequences, even in the human fpecies, if it be but 
timely adminiftered. Cayenne pepper has been more re¬ 
cently pronounced an antidote. Med. Fails, vol. vii. 
What is exprefled from the farina of caflava is frequently 
preferred and prepared for many economic ufes ; in boiling 
it throws up a thick vifcid l'cum, which is always calt 
away, and the remaining fluid is. fometimes diluted and 
kept for common drink; and is thought in that Hate to 
-elemble whey. Some ufe it in fauces for filh and many 
other forts of food ; purpofes for which it was employed 
by the native Indians, long before any European had 
landed in thole parts of the world. The farina, whilft 
O P H A. 
yet impregnated with the juice, makes an excellent falve, 
which feldom fails to clean and heal the molt defperate 
fores ; where thefe are very foul, or the parts too much 
relaxed, it is fometimes mixed with a few pounded to¬ 
bacco-leaves ; and has been often found effectual, where 
common ointments have not had the leaft force ; it is alfi) 
ufed by way of poultice, and is an excellent refolutive. 
In. Madagafcar, caflava is the ordinary food of the 
blacks, and the French call it Madagafcar bread. In the 
Weft Indies this plant is called caflava, cafjada, or cajjadar. 
In brafil, mandihoca, mamba, manduba ; whence we have the 
nam & manihot, and in French, manihiot. The Caifbes call it 
yu/ta or juka ; which name-is adopted in Germany, and by 
the Spaniards, who call it yucca dc cafabt. The Germans 
and Dutch have alfo adopted the Weft. Indian name, as 
well as the Englilh. At Rio di Janeiro they call the flour 
or meal of the caflava root ,farinha dipao ; which may, not 
improperly, be tranflated, “powder of poll.” It was cul- 
tivated here in 1739 by Mr. Miller ; and flowers in July 
and Auguft. 
11. latropha janipha, or Carthaginian phyfic-nut: leaves 
palmate, lobes quite entire, the middle ones on both fideS 
lobed with a finus. This is an upright fnrub, quite (inooth 
all over, abounding in an aqueous juice, that is fomewhat 
clammy, and has the fmell of walnut-leaves. In dole 
woods it frequently riles with a weak, unbranched, rod¬ 
like, Item, to the height of twenty feet,- and it retains this 
habit in the European Itoves ; among other flirubs in open 
places it is tommonly no more than fix feet high, aiid'ap- 
proaches very near to the figure of the preceding fort, 
from which Linnaeus feems to think this is hardly fpeci- 
fically different. In the ruined Walls of the fortrefs of 
Boca Chica it is become a fort of tree, eight feet high, 
with a.ftraight trunk four inches in diameter, and with a 
pretty head. Loureiro deferibes it as only four feet high, 
with a ftraight, unbranched, unarmed, Item. Roots very 
tuberous, like thofe of afphodel, in bundles; the. tubers, 
ovate-oblong,acute, white within and without, three inches’ 
long, with a fweetilh hot tafte. Leaves large, elegant, 
palmate-digitate; lobes five, (about nine, according to 
Loureiro,) oblong, acuminate, contraded in the middle on 
both tides by a very large linus; the outer ones frequent¬ 
ly quite entire. The fruit is covered with a fiefliy green 
pellicle, marked with fix white ftreaks, and fhining very 
much ; it is then globular, and more than half an inch in 
diameter; but this dries up and falls off, and then the 
capfule remains three-lobed on the lides. But this is 
more or lefs the cafe in the other fpecies of this genus, 
Croton, and Acalypha. The feeds are fliining, fubovate, 
green or alb-coloured. Native of South America; com¬ 
mon about Cartliagena,-flowering almoft the whole year; 
alfo of China, according to Loureiro, who adds, that it is 
ufed,not raw, but-boiled, as are l'olutive, like the preceding. 
12. latropha urens, or flinging phyfic-nut: leaves pal¬ 
mate, toothed, prickly. This has a thick, Avelling, fiefliy, 
root, from which arifes an herbaceous ftalk as big as a 
man’s thumb, four or five feet high, and dividing into 
-feveral branches ; thefe are very clofely armed with long- 
brown fpines; the footftalks of the leaves are fix or l’even 
inches long, which are alfo armed with fpines, but not lo 
clofely, nor are the fpines fo long as thofe on the ftalk and' 
branches; the leaves are deeply cut into five lobes, which 
are jagged deeply on their Tides, and the nerves are armed 
with flinging fpines; the flowers are produced in umbels 
at the top of the branches, Handing upon long naked pe¬ 
duncles ; they are of a pure white colour ; the male flow¬ 
ers appear firlt; they are five-petalled, forming a Ihort tube 
at bottom, and fpreading open flat above; the ftamens are 
the length of the tube, and fill it up at the mouth; the 
female flowers are finaller, but of the fame lhape, with an 
ovate three-cornered germ. Native of Brafil. Mr. Miller 
fays, it was found at Carthagena in New Spain by Mr. 
Robert Millar, who fent the feeds to England, which fuc- 
ceeded in leveral curious gardens. But, according to the 
s Catalogue 
