58 GARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY 
characteristic flower of the tropics. In some places the flowers are 
used for dyeing hair and eyebrows and for blacking shoes. 
Hura crepitans, or SANDBOX TREE, or MoNKEY DINNER-BELL, a native 
of tropical America, belongs to the Euphorbiaceae, the family to which 
flowering spurge belongs. The tree reaches a height of 100 feet and 
is grown as an ornamental tree in many tropical and subtropical coun- 
tries. The fruit is a woody capsule the size of a large apple, and before 
the days of blotting paper was used in the West Indies as a sandbox 
for pouring sand on letters; hence the name of sandbox tree. When 
the capsules ripen on the tree, they explode most noisily, throwing the 
seeds a great distance. The seeds are a violent, drastic purgative. 
The milky juice of the tree is exceedingly poisonous when taken in- 
ternally, and has been known to cause fatal injury to the eyes when 
brought into contact with them. 
Hymenaea Courbaril, a native of the region from the West Indies to 
Brazil, belongs to the Leguminosae, the family to which our locust 
tree belongs. This species is an evergreen tree that reaches a height 
of 80 feet, and a diameter of 9 feet. Individual specimens are known 
that are supposed to be at least 1000 years old. It yields a fragrant, 
amber-like resin known as courbaril, or American copal. This copal 
is used in making varnishes and lacquers. The fossil copal found 
buried in various sections is also used in making varnishes; but it is 
widely used, too, in making such articles as are commonly made of 
amber. The heavy, hard, close-grained wood of the tree is used for 
wheelwork, tree-nails, beams, and machine parts. The sweetish 
pulp of the pods is eaten by the Indians. 
Ilex paraguariensis, or MATE, a native of Paraguay and parts of Brazil, 
belongs to the Aquifoliaceae, the family to which our holly belongs. 
Mate is a shrub that reaches a height of 15 to 20 feet. So far as is 
known, it is not cultivated, the entire supply of leaves being secured 
from the dense thickets of wild plants. The plant could soon be ex- 
terminated if it were carelessly picked. As it is, leaves are picked 
only from fully grown trees, and the same tree is picked only at long 
intervals. Collectors go into the forest with machetes and cut off 
branches 4 to 5 feet in length. They build bonfires and swing each 
branch through the fire at once until the leaves are singed—otherwise 
the flavor would be lost. The branches are then carried to a central 
camp and dried by skilled Indians, as much of the flavor depends 
upon the drying. The final preparation of the product for market 
is carried on in factories. Mate is extensively used in South America 
and in Italy, where returned workers from the Brazilian coffee planta- 
tions have introduced it. It was comparatively unknown in the 
United States before the World War; but is now an important import. 
The taste for mate must be acquired; but once the mate habit is ac- 
quired, it is said to be much harder to break than the tea habit. 
Illictum anisatum, or STAR ANISE, a native of China, is a small tree 
that belongs to the Magnoliaceae, the family to which our magnolia 
and tulip tree belong. This is generally understood to be the tree from 
which the star anise of commerce is secured, although there is some 
