The Dalbergias yield a reddish resin, which has been sold for dragon’s blood. Pterocarpus draco is one of these; East Indian kino is the inspissated juice of P. marsupium, a native of Coro-mandel; the Cabbage tree (Andira inermis). The Tonquin Bean is the seed of Dipterus odorata, belonging to this section.

Trine VII. SopHore®.—Corolla papilionaceous; stamens ten, rarely eight or nine; free pod, continuous, unarticulate, unopening, or two-valved.

The Balsam of Peru, supposed to be extracted from Myrospermum peruiferum, and the Balsam of Tolu, from JZ. toluiferum, belong to this section. Virgilia capensis is a handsome tree. The Judas-tree (Cercis siliquastrum), and many other trees useful in medicine or yielding commercial products, belong to this » section. Tring VIII. Cxsaprnrex.—Corolla irregular, sub-papilionaceous, or almost regular, sometimes absent; stamens ten, or fewer, free, sometimes serrated; pod dry and two-valved.

The section includes many medicinal plants, as the Necker-tree (Guilandina bonduc), useful in intermittent fevers, the seeds of which are used as beads and marbles. The Brazil-wood of commerce (C@salpinia Braziliensis) is a tree of San Domingo, twenty feet high. Many others of the genus yield valuable dyes. Hema-toxylon campechianum yields the logwood-dye; Tamarindus Indicus, tamarind; tree of sixty feet, yields the well-known alarge spreading the true Officinal Senna is the produce of Cassia lanceolata; and C. obovata is the Alexandria Senna; all the Cassias producing similar local varieties of the medicine. Cassia Jistula, a tree forty or fifty feet high, produces pods upwards of a foot in length, whose mucilage is known as the Purging Cassia. The wood of Aloexy/on agallochum is much esteemed for its fragrant odour: this is the Aloe-wood of the East. Gum Anime is produced by Hymenea courbaril, a lofty tree of South America. The Copal of Mexico is Produced by another species of Hymenea. The bark of Bauhina racemosa is used to make ropes: it is a climbing tree, known in India as the Maloo Creeper, which hangs in elegant festoons from says Dr. the top of the loftiest trees, “which one is surprised,” . Royle, “‘ from the distance of its roots from the stems, how it could Teach.” Amherstia nobilis is a Burmese tree thirty to forty feet

high, which, “when in flower,” as Dr. Wallich tells us, “is profusely ornamented with pendulous racemes of large vermilion-coloured blossoms, forming objects of beauty unequalled in the Indian Flora.” In short, a vast proportion of the trees belonging to this section of Leguminacce are distinguished for their beauty or utility, and in most instances they possess both qualities in the highest degree. Tre IX. Mroincex.—Corolla irregular; stamens eight or ten inserted on the top of the disc which lines the base of the calyx, free at the base, connate at the middle; pod with three valves, one-celled, lined with a fungous substance in which the | seeds are embedded. Moringa pterygosperma is called the Horse-radish-tree, the roots when young being used as we use Horse-radish. The oil of Ben is procured from its seeds, and also from M. aptera. This oil, ‘inodorous and clear itself, keeps for years without becoming rancid: it is used for extracting odours from other odoriferous flowers. Trise X. Swarrztex.—Flowers perfect, somewhat irregular; petals and stamens hypogynous; stamens rarely inserted in the calyx, either nine or ten, free; pod two-valved or drupaceous, unopening.: In this section we find the Cane-wood of commerce, the produce of Baphia nitida, an African tree of fifty or sixty feet high. Erythrophlaum guineense is an immense tree of Guinea, growing 4 hundred feet high, called the Ordeal-tree, the juice being used by the natives as an ordeal of guilt or innocence. The red juice 18 swallowed in certain portions by the accused, and those who cannot withstand its effects are considered guilty.

Trise XI. Mimosem.—Flowers regular, generally unisexual, sometimes hermaphrodite; calyx four or five-lobed, equal, valvate; petals four or five, equal, inserted on the receptacle; stamens

In this section we find the Nitta-tree (Parkis Africana), ® large tree of Western Africa, where the seeds are roasted and used as we do coffee. The pulp of the pods surrounding the seeds 18 sweet and farinaceous: it forms a pleasant drink, and is som times made into a sweetmeat. Adenanthera pavonina is @ gigantic

tree one hundred feet high; its timber is valued for its solidity; its seeds, of a lively scarlet, are highly polished, and the leaves, powdered, are used in some of the religious ceremonies of India. Several kinds of Prosopis yield edible fruits. Gum-arabic is the. produce of several species of Acacia, the most important being A. vera and A. Arabica. All the Acacias yield gums, and many of them are valuable for their timber, and for turning purposes. A. melanoxylon, called Black wood, is a hard, close- grained, dark, and richly-veined cabinet-wood of South Africa, much used by the colonists. The pods of Castanospermenum Australe contain four seeds as large as a Spanish chestnut, which are eaten by the natives of Moreton Bay. Brya ebenus, asmall tree, called American Ebony,

Fig. 416.—Branch and Flower of Robinia pseud-acacia. is the ebony in common use. Its slender branches are flexible, and used as riding switches in the West Indies, where it was formerly used to punish refractory slaves. which pseud-acacia), (Robinia or rather Robinia The Acacia, was origi y from_ Will serveus as a type of the Papilionacee, in France by Robin in the It was first cultivated America.North

year 1601. It is a tree of great size, terminated by an ample rotund head, with spreading branches; its russet bark is marked with deep longitudinal crevices; its branches are supplied with spines in the shape of strong prickles; its leaves are composed of numerous oblong leaflets; and its white and very odorous flowers are disposed in well-furnished hanging bunches (Fig. 416).

Let us see what is the structure of the flower of the Acacia.

The calyx, which is composed of five petals, is nearly campanulate, almost bilobate, with upper lip truncate, or emarginate and bidentate. The lower lip is bifid. The corolla is composed of five petals. According to the expression used by botanists, it is said to be “ papilionaceous.” That part of the corolla called the “ standard ’’—that is, the fifth petal—is orbicular, spreading backward, scarcely extending beyond the wings, which are free; and the casina—viz. the two anterior petals or seed—are pointed. ‘Ihe stamens are ten in number, of which nine form one bundle, leaving only one free. Their anthers are bilocuiar, opening from within by two longitudinal clefts. The unilocular ovary encloses a score of ovules. The style is very slight, and the stigmata obtuse. The fruit, which forms an important character in this family, is a pod; the seeds are of a compressed ovoid shape, shiny, and of a dark colour, and enclose an embryo without albumen.

The AMycpaALER—or, as Dr. Lindley terms them, the DrupacE& —include the Almond, Peach, Nectarine, Apricot, Plum, and Cherry; fruits which are produced through the whole of Europe, The Almonds are divided into Bitter and Asia, and America. Sweet Almonds, the former being the produce of Amygdalus communis amara, and the latter of A. com. dulcis. The Sweet Almond is chiefly imported from Malaga; Bitter Almonds chiefly from Moroceo. The Peach (A. persica), Fig. 417, nearly allied to the Almond, belongs to the same genus; and there are said to be instances of successful impregnation of the Almond with the pollen of the Peach. In this country the Peach, Apricot, and Nectarine only prosper as wall-fruit, where the reflected warmth of the wall, careful pruning, and such shelter as can be given from frost 10 the spring, lead to large crops of delicious fruit: but the result *, very precarious. Under the generic name of Prunus, Linneeus

included the Apricot, Plum, and Cherry. They are known by their numerous stamens rising from the origin of a tubular calyx, and by their drupe-like fruit. The leaves and other parts of the NS plant yield hydrocyanic acid, _ which renders all the species more or less deleterious, although, the quantity of the poison is too minute to be injurious under | ordinary circumstances. ves The Almond (Amygdalus communis) may be taken as a type of the AmyepaLace®, which _belong to the large class of Rosacea. This tree, indigenous to Africa, is now cultivated throughout the: Whole of Europe. Its branches Fig. 417. BlossomofthePeach. are elongated, of a clear, ve the leayes are alternate, ~ glossy green, and slightly glaucous; lanceolate, and dentate like a saw. The flowers appear before the leaves; they are large, solitary, and germinate on the whole length of the branch. A hollowed receptacle, in the shape of 4 cup, bears upon its edges five sepals, five petals, and from fifteen & to thirty stamens, sheltering a sessile unilocular ovary, containing two collateral anatropal ovules suspended at the summit of its single cavity. It is surmounted by a terminal style. The fruit 8 a.compressed oblong drupe, with fibrous coriaceous dry flesh, mecompletely bivalved, opening irregularly. Its stone is rugose, creviced, and hard; it generally encloses only a single ovule, by reason of the abortion of the others.

There are two varieties of the Almond; the seeds of one are Sweet, of the other bitter. The Peach-tree (Amygdalus persica) only differs essentially from the Almond-tree in its fruit, the flesh of which is thick, fleshy, and succulent; and in the structure of its stone, which is a furrowed with deep anfractuosities. This species, originally from Persia, presents three interesting varieties. In the two first the fruit. is downy, in the third glossy. The first variety has firm GG:

flesh adhering to its nucleus; it comprehends the White, Yellow, Red, and Monster Clingstone Peach. In the second variety the flesh is melting and easily detached from the stone. These are Peaches, properly speaking, the different varieties of which have given us fruits as remarkable for their flavour as their beauty. The third variety is distinguished from the two preceding” by its pellicle, which is shiny, and not tomentose. It comprehends the Violet Peach, the flesh of which easily detaches itself from the stone, and the Nectarine, the flesh of which adheres to it.

Of the genera Prunus, the flowers present characteristics nearly — identical with those of the genus Amygdalus, but it differs in the structure of the fruit. It comprehends the Apricot, Plum, and Cherry. The Apricot (Prunus Armeniaca) gives a velvety drupe, the shiny stone of which has one obtuse side and the other supplied by a sort of keel, running along two lateral furrows. This tree is a native of Armenia. It is of middle size, and has rotund leaves, nearly in the shape of a heart, terminating in a point, and dentated. The flowers are white, and disposed in little clusters e very close together at the upper part of the branches. We may ~ mention, among the varieties cultivated in France, the Early Apricot, the fruit of which is. of a yellowish colour, as large as a nut, with a heavy and rather bitter saffron-coloured flesh. The Angoumais Apricot is of middle size, and the flesh is red and pleasantly fragrant. The Common Apricot (Peach Apricot), the. largest of all, the flesh of which is yellow, melting, and of a peculiar flavour, is the variety chiefly cultivated in England.

The fruit of the Plum-tree is smooth, and covered with a glaucous bloom. The stone presents one side rotund and hollowed into = one furrow, on the other side there are two lateral furrows. cultivated Plums with alimentary fruit have but two stocks on which the varieties are grafted, perhaps we might say but one, namely, Prunus insititia and domestica.

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