71. Bromelia pinguin.—This is very common as a hedge or fence plant in the West Indies. The leaves, when beaten with a blunt mallet and macerated in water, produce fibers from which beautiful fabrics are manufactured. The fruit yields a cooling juice much used in fevers.
72. Brosimum alicastrum.—The bread-nut tree of Jamaica. The nuts or seeds produced by this tree are said to form an agreeable and nutritious article of food. When cooked they taste like hazelnuts. The young branches and shoots are greedily eaten by horses and cattle, and the wood resembles mahogany, and is used for making furniture.
73. Brosimum galactodendron.—The cow tree of South America, which yields a milk of as good quality as that from the cow. It forms large forests on the mountains near the town of Cariaco and elsewhere along the seacoast of Venezuela, reaching to a considerable height. In South America the cow tree is called Palo de Vaca, or Arbol de Leche. Its milk, which is obtained by making incisions in the trunk, so closely resembles the milk of the cow, both in appearance and quality, that it is commonly used as an article of food by the inhabitants of the places where the tree is abundant. Unlike many other vegetable milks, it is perfectly wholesome, and very nourishing, possessing an agreeable taste, and a pleasant balsamic odor, its only unpleasant quality being a slight amount of stickiness. The chemical analysis of this milk has shown it to possess a composition closely resembling some animal substances; and, like animal milk, it quickly forms a cheesy scum, and after a few days' exposure to the atmosphere, turns sour and putrefies. It contains upwards of 30 per cent of a resinous substance called galactine.
74. Brya ebenus.—Jamaica or West India ebony tree. This is not the plant that yields the true ebony-wood of commerce. Jamaica ebony is of a greenish-brown color, very hard, and so heavy that it sinks in water. It takes a good polish, and is used by turners for the manufacture of numerous kinds of small wares.
75. Byrsonima spicata.—A Brazilian plant, furnishing an astringent bark used for tanning, and also containing a red coloring matter employed in dyeing. The berries are used in medicine, and a decoction of the roots is used for ulcers.
76. Cæsalpinia bonduc.—A tropical plant, bearing the seeds known as nicker nuts, or bonduc nuts. These are often strung together for necklaces. The kernels have a very bitter taste, and the oil obtained from them is used medicinally.
77. Cæsalpinia pulcherrima.—This beautiful flowering leguminous plant is a native of the East Indies, but is cultivated in all the tropics. In Jamaica it is called the "Barbados flower." The wood is sought after for charcoal, and a decoction of the leaves and flowers is used in fevers.
78. Cæsalpinia sappan.—The brownish-red wood of this Indian tree furnishes the Sappan wood of commerce, from which dyers obtain a red color, principally used for dyeing cotton goods. Its root also affords an orange-yellow dye.
79. Calamus rotang.—This is one of the palms that furnish the canes or rattans used for chair bottoms, sides of pony-carriages, and similar purposes. It is a climbing palm and grows to an immense length; specimens 300 feet long have been exhibited, climbing over and amongst the branches of trees, supporting themselves by means of the hooked spines attached to the leaf stalks. C. rudentum and C. viminalis furnish flexible canes. In their native countries they are used for a variety of manufacturing purposes, also for ropes and cables used by junks and other coasting vessels. In the Himalayas they are used in the formation of suspension bridges across rivers and deep ravines. C. scipionum furnishes the well-known Malacca canes used for walking sticks. They are naturally of a rich brown color. The clouded and mottled appearance which some of these present is said to be imparted to them by smoking and steaming.
80. Callistemon salignus.—A medium-sized tree from Australia; one of the many so-called tea trees of that country. The wood, which is very hard, is known as stone wood and has been used for wood engraving. Layers of the bark readily peel off; hence it also receives the name of paper-bark plant.