exclusively upon the Tapioca plant. He thus describes the mode of
preparing it, &c.:--"They (speaking of the half-caste Portuguese)
subsist chiefly on the Manioc, and as that can be eaten either raw,
roasted, or boiled, as it comes from the ground, or fermented in water
and then roasted or dried after fermentation and baked, or pounded
or rasped into meal and cooked as farina, or made into confectionery
with butter and sugar, it does not so soon pall upon the palate as one
might imagine when told that it constitutes their principal food. The
leaves, boiled, make an excellent vegetable for the table, and when
eaten by goats, their milk is much increased. The wood is a good fuel,
and yields a large quantity of potash.... The root, rasped while raw,
placed upon a cloth, and rubbed with the hands while water is poured
upon it, parts with its starchy glutinous matter, and this, when it
settles at the bottom of the vessel and the water is poured off, is
placed in the sun till nearly dry to form tapioca, the process of
drying is completed on an iron plate over a slow fire, the mass being
stirred meanwhile with a stick; when dry, it appears agglutinated into
little globules, and is in the form we see in the tapioca of commerce."
Although none of this family of plants produce building timber
(according to our notions of that article), yet it is questionable
whether we have a greater number of uses for our exogenous woods than
are found by the natives of those countries where the Endogenæ abound
for palm stems and bamboo canes; as the Grecian styles of architecture
arose from the imitation of structures of timber, so the Hindoo and
Chinese styles have arisen from imitation of bamboo buildings. There
is scarcely a constructive use that can be imagined to which this
convenient material is not applied. In the "Penny Cyclopædia" (article
"Bambusa") is the following:--
"The purposes to which different species of bamboo are applied, are so
numerous that it would be difficult to point out an object in which
strength and elasticity are requisite, and for which lightness is no
objection, to which the stems are not adapted in the countries where
they grow. The young shoots of some species are cut when tender, and
eaten like asparagus. The full-grown stems, while green, form elegant
cases, exhaling a perpetual moisture, and capable of transporting fresh
flowers for hundreds of miles; when ripe and hard, they are converted
into bows, arrows, and quivers, lance-shafts, the masts of vessels,
bed-posts, walking-sticks, the poles of palanquins, the floors and
supporters of rustic bridges, and a variety of similar purposes. In
a growing state the spiny kinds are formed into stockades, which are
impenetrable to any but regular infantry aided by artillery.
"By notching their sides the Malays make wonderfully light
scaling-ladders, which can be conveyed with facility where heavier
machines could not be transported. Bruised and crushed in water, the
leaves and stems form Chinese paper, the finer qualities of which only
are improved by a mixture of raw cotton, and by more careful pounding.
"The leaves of a small species are the material used by the Chinese for
the lining of their tea-chests. Cut into lengths and the partitions
knocked out, they form durable water-pipes, or by a little contrivance
are made into excellent cases for holding rolls of papers; slit into
strips they afford a most durable material for weaving into mats,
baskets, window-blinds, and even the sails of boats. Finally, the
larger and thicker truncheons are exquisitely carved by the Chinese
into beautiful ornaments. It is however more especially for building
purposes that the bamboo is important (fig. 15). According to Marsden,
in Sumatra the framework of the houses of the natives is chiefly
composed of this material. In the floorings, whole stems four or
five inches in diameter are laid close to each other, and across
these laths of split bamboo about an inch wide are fastened down
with filaments of rattan-cane. The sides of the houses are closed in
with the bamboo opened and rendered flat by splitting or notching
the circular joints on the outside, clipping away the corresponding
divisions within and laying in the sun to dry pressed down with
weights. Whole bamboos often form the upright timbers, and the house
is generally roofed in with a thatch of narrow split bamboos six feet
long, placed in regular layers, each reaching within two feet of the
extremity of that beneath it, by which a treble covering is formed.
Another and most ingenious roof is also formed, by cutting large
straight bamboos of sufficient length to reach from the ridge to the
eaves, then splitting them exactly in two, knocking out the partitions
and arranging them in close order, with the hollow or inner sides
uppermost; after which a second layer with the outer or convex sides
up, is placed upon the other in such a manner that each of the convex
falls into the two contiguous concave pieces, covering their edges, the
latter serving as gutters to carry off the rain that falls upon the
upper or convex layer."
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--HUT OF BAMBOO.]
The Endogenæ are divided into twelve orders, as follows:--
1. GRAMINACÆ (Grasses).
[Illustration: Wheat, Barley, Meadow-grass.]
The Graminacæ comprise the great bulk of those plants which supply
man and the lower animals with food, for it contains all the grasses
and corn-bearing plants, including rice, maize, wheat, oats, barley,
and rye. Upon these all the Ruminants of the earth feed, and millions
of human beings taste no other kind of food. There are nearly 4000
species of graminaceous plants, rice and maize being the most broadly
extended, forming the chief food of the Chinese, Hindoos, and other
nations; wheat is here the most valuable grain, and is now grown in
all parts of Europe and America. Humboldt, in his "Views of Nature,"
gives an interesting account of the first wheat grown in New Spain. He
says:--
"A negro slave of the great Cortes was the first who cultivated wheat
in New Spain, from three seeds which he found in some rice brought
from Spain for the use of the troops. In the Franciscan convent of
Quito I saw, preserved as a relic, the earthen vessel which had
contained the first wheat sown in Quito by the Franciscan monk Fra
Jodoco Rixi de Gante, a native of Ghent in Flanders. The first crop
was raised in front of the convent, on the Plazuela di San Francisco,
after the wood which then extended from the foot of the volcano of
Pinchincha had been cleared. The monks, whom I frequently visited at
Quito, begged me to explain the inscription, which, according to their
conjecture, contained some hidden allusion to wheat. On examining the
vessel, I read in old German the words,
"'Let him who drinks from me ne'er forget his God.'
"This old German drinking-cup excited in me feelings of veneration.
Would that everywhere on the New Continent the names of those were
preserved who, instead of devastating the soil by bloody conquests,
confided to it the first fruits of Ceres."
2. CYPERACEÆ (Sedges).
These plants much resemble the Grasses, they afford but little
nourishment, however, to cattle, having but little starchy matter in
them, and being but little succulent. The Cyperus Papyrus is the plant
from which the ancient "papyrus" was made, and is probably (according
to Dr. Baird) the plant termed in Scripture the Bull-rush.
[Illustration: Sedges.]
3. ARACEÆ (Arum tribe).
The Araceæ include the Arum maculatum, or Cuckoo-pint, peculiar in
having the flowers enclosed by a kind of sheath formed like a leaf,
and called a "spathe." The "Portland Sago" is obtained from the
Rhizome of this plant, but some of the species of this order are
poisonous. The Dumb-cane (Caladium Segninum) paralyses the tongue, if
chewed.
[Illustration: Arum.]
4. TYPHACEÆ (Bull-rush kind).
The Typhaceæ are the Bull-rush tribe, having the Typha latifolia or
great Reed-mace for its characteristic member. It grows in ditches
and marshy places. The young shoots of the Bull-rush, which resemble
asparagus, are eaten by the Cossacks as food.
[Illustration: Bull-rush.]
5. MELANTHACEÆ (Colchicum kind).
This includes many plants which have bulbous roots, some of them being
poisonous. The Colchicum autumnale, or Meadow Saffron, is the type of
this order; it grows in moist meadows, producing a purple flower which
appears before the leaves. The root or bulb, and the seeds, are used
in medicine.
[Illustration: Meadow Saffron.]
6. LILIACEÆ (Lily kind).
The Liliaceæ are a very numerous tribe, including the Lilies,
Hyacinths, and Tulips, the Onion, Garlic, Asparagus, the Cape Aloe,
Yucca, and many others; they are for the most part bulbous plants,
having simple leaves enclosing the stem. The Palms are included in
this order; they are among the tallest and most graceful of the
vegetable tribes, and in the countries where they abound are applied
to almost every purpose that can be enumerated.
[Illustration: Lily.]
7. AMARYLLIDACEÆ (Narcissus kind).
The Amaryllidaceæ are the Narcissus tribe, including also the Agave,
or American Aloe, and the Snow-drop. The greater number of species
belonging to this order are natives of the Cape of Good Hope, some of
these are poisonous; the juice of the Cape Blood-flower (Hæmanthus
Toxicarius) is used by the Hottentots to poison their arrows with.
[Illustration: Narcissus.]
8. IRIDACEÆ (Crocus tribe).
The Iridaceæ include the Crocus (Crocus sativa), the Corn-flag
(Gladeolus communis), and the Blue-flag (Iris Germanica); the bulb of
the Iris Florentina, is dried and used for various purposes, it has a
scent resembling violets and is sold at druggists' shops by the name
of orris-root, a corruption of iris-root.
[Illustration: Crocus.]
9. ORCHIDACEÆ (Orchids).
[Illustration: Butterfly Orchis.]
The family of the Orchis. Dr. Baird, in describing them, says:--"They
are almost all herbaceous, a very few only being somewhat shrubby in
their growth; some live in the ground, and besides the ordinary roots
have bulbs or starch-bearing tubercles; others are what may be called
pseudo-parasites, living attached to the bark of trees. These plants
abound in the forests of tropical countries, where the climate is
moist, and are generally known by the name of Epiphytes. The flowers
vary very much in shape, form, and colour, and in many instances have
a striking resemblance to insects, various birds, and animals, as
Oncidium, in which the resemblance is to butterflies, &c.; Cychnoches,
in which (in one species) the likeness is strikingly similar to a
swan; Peristeria, one species of which is called the Sprito-Santo
plant, of Panama, and in whose flower there is the likeness of a dove
descending upon the lip, &c. A curious fact in this part of their
history is, that in the same plant, on the same stem, and even on the
same head of flowers, we find flowers so different in appearance that
we might place them in different genera."
10. NAIADACEÆ (Naiads).
Water-plants, called "pond-weeds," and grow on both fresh and salt
water. The marine species, Zostera marina, is dried and used for
stuffing mattresses.
[Illustration: Pond Weed.]
11. BUTOMACEÆ (Flowering Rushes).
Of this order the Butomas umbellatus, a sort of rush, producing very
handsome pink flowers in umbels, growing in ditches and by the sides
of rivers, is the most characteristic member.
[Illustration: Flowering Rush.]
12. ALISMACEÆ (Water Plantain).
The two chief members of this order are the Alisma Plantago or Water
Plantain, which grows in ditches, having its flowers in the form of
panicles, and the Sagittaria sagittæfolia or Arrowhead.
[Illustration: Water Plantain.]
* * * * *
The third great natural family of plants are the Exogenæ. They comprise
all the trees and shrubs of the temperate and colder regions, together
with many of the flowering plants. They are characterised by certain
peculiarities which can be at once recognised, such as the twisted and
branched form of the stem, the possession of bark, leaves having the
veins covering them running in all directions and forming a network,
and the seeds containing two cotyledons; the wood, moreover, is
deposited in rings (figs. 16, 17, 18, 19), one of which is formed every
year, by the new wood being produced on the outside of the old, and
between it and the bark. This deposition takes place as follows: after
the rains of winter and early spring have well saturated the earth with
moisture, and the warmth of spring has begun to penetrate to the roots
of the plants, a development of the points of each fibrile or radicle
takes place, forming new spongioles; these, being formed of new porous
cellular tissue, begin to absorb (by endosmose) the moisture of the
earth, which entering at all these thousands of minute spongioles at
once, collects and rises in the vessels of the trunk and branches, and
arriving at the vessels forming a plexis on the surface of every leaf,
begins to be changed by the action of the sun's rays, absorbing carbon
and giving out oxygen from the carbonic acid always contained in the
air. The sap which has thus risen is the juice of the earth in which
the plant grows, containing several earthy salts and vegetable extract
drawn from the manure or decaying vegetation contained in the mould,
together with carbonic acid dissolved in the fluid; this carbonic acid
is changed by the sun's rays as well as that which was contained in the
air, and the carbon uniting with the watery part of the sap, forms the
green substance before alluded to, called chlorophyll, which is the
green colouring matter of all plants, and is the basis of the wood.
The altered sap descends between the wood and the bark, and forms a
deposit gradually, which at the end of the year is a complete ring of
wood surrounding the wood of former years. This circulation of juices
continues through the summer, until, the cold weather coming on and the
light being diminished, the sap neither rises nor is the leaf nourished
by it, when it decays and falls off.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--PERPENDICULAR SECTION OF EXOGENOUS WOOD
(ELM), A, the pith, B B, the woody rings, C C, the bark.]
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--PERPENDICULAR SECTION OF EXOGENOUS WOOD
(CEDAR), MAGNIFIED.]
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--TRANSVERSE SECTION OF EXOGENOUS WOOD
(ELM), SHOWING THE GROWTH OF NINE YEARS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--TRANSVERSE SECTION OF EXOGENOUS WOOD
(CEDAR) MAGNIFIED, SHOWING THE GROWTH OF FIVE YEARS.]
The age of exogenous wood can be ascertained--where the centre has not
decayed--by counting the rings, one only being deposited every year;
and it is truly astonishing to find that some trees will continue
to live and flourish for several thousand years! There does not, in
truth, appear to be any limit assigned to the life of an exogenous tree
if it escape accidents; for, although decay inevitably attacks the
heartwood, and a cavity is the result, yet, the new wood continuing to
be deposited on the outer part, the vitality of the tree is kept up,
and its size continues to increase.
The Baobab or Monkey Bread-fruit trees, growing at the mouths of the
Senegal, have been estimated by Adinson to be upwards of six thousand
years old, and are, in all probability, the oldest relics of organic
life existing at the present time. The cedars of Lebanon are supposed
to have existed longer than the records of history. The Yew at Braburn,
in Kent, is at least three thousand years old; and that of Fortingal
nearly as much.
Dr. Livingstone, describing the Mowana or Baobab tree (fig. 20), thus
comments upon its power of withstanding injury:--
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--THE BAOBAB TREE.]
"No external injury, not even a fire, can destroy this tree from
without, nor can any injury be done from within, as it is quite common
to find it hollow, and I have seen one in which twenty or thirty
men could lie down and sleep as in a hut. Nor does cutting down
exterminate it, for I saw instances in Angola in which it continued
to grow in length, after it was lying on the ground. Those trees,
called exogenous, grow by means of successive layers on the outside;
the inside may be dead, or even removed altogether, without affecting
the life of the tree; this is the case with most of the trees of our
climate. The other class is called endogenous, and increases by layers
applied to the inside, and when the hollow of the tree is full, the
growth is stopped, and the tree must die. Any injury is felt most
severely by the first class on the bark, by the second on the inside,
while the inside of the exogenous may be removed, or the outside of the
endogenous may be cut, without stopping the growth in the least. The
Mowana possesses the power of both. The reason is, that each of the
laminæ possesses its own independent vitality; in fact, the Baobab is
rather a gigantic bulb run up to seed than a tree. The roots, which may
often be observed extending along the surface of the ground forty or
fifty yards from the trunk, also retain their vitality after the tree
is laid low, and the Portuguese now know that the best way to treat
them is to let them alone, for they occupy much more room when cut down
than when growing."
On examining the wood of the exogenæ, it will be found that in the
very centre is a small column of cellular tissue, called the pith, and
that from this, fine layers of the same substance radiate towards the
circumference. These are called the medullary rays, or silver-grain;
they form an exterior layer or ring of cellular substance on the
outside of the wood, which is called the cambium. The lightness of
wood is owing to its porosity, and, on examining a transverse section
under the microscope (figs. 17 and 19), it will be seen how little of
real space is occupied in wood by solid substance. The spaces between
the wall-work of woody matter in the tree are all filled with sap,
and hence it is that "green wood" is so much heavier than that which
is well seasoned. It is its lightness and strength, together with the
ease with which it can be cut and fashioned, which renders wood so
exceedingly useful; but its inflammability and liability to decay are
great barriers to its more general use.
The leaves of the exogenæ have their veins always in the form of a
network, and not running parallel with each other, as in the endogenæ
(fig. 21).
Of the three divisions of the vegetable kingdom, the exogenæ alone
furnish building timber, properly so called, and it is doubtful whether
nature has supplied a more generally applicable substance than wood;
being a bad conductor, it can be handled in the coldest weather, which
metal cannot, and, being easily cut or split, can be fashioned into
almost any form.
[Illustration: FIG. 21--EXOGENOUS LEAF, SHOWING RETICULATED VENATION.]
The woods mostly in use for general purposes are the different kinds of
pine, as American Pine, Norway Pine, yellow and white Deal, Mahogany,
Oak, Beech, Elm, Ash, and Maple. In the "Penny Cyclopædia," under the
article "Wood," is the following description of the different kinds
used by cabinet-makers, &c.:--
"The woods that are used by the cabinet-maker for furniture of a more
delicate kind are called 'fancy woods.' The use of these has become
much more general since the introduction of the art of veneering, and
now that this is done by machinery instead of by hand, a number of
woods are used for furniture and other purposes, which, on account of
their scarcity, could have been formerly used only to a very limited
extent. The most common of the fancy woods, and that which is most
used by cabinet-makers, is Mahogany. This wood is the produce of the
'Swienteria Mahogani.'
"Next in point of importance and use to Mahogany, is Rosewood. This
wood obtains its name from its fragrance, and is the produce of a
mimosa from the forests of Brazil; in veneering it affords about eight
plates to the inch.
"King-wood is a beautiful wood much in use, brought from Brazil in
logs four feet long and about five inches wide, and is used only for
delicate articles; it is said to be the produce of a species of
Baphia, a genus of Leguminous plants.
"Beef-wood is a very heavy wood of a pale red colour, and is brought
from New Holland in logs nine feet long and thirteen or fourteen inches
wide; the tree from which this is obtained is unknown to botanists, as
well as most of those producing the fancy woods of commerce.
"Tulip-wood is brought into the market in very small pieces, not more
than four feet long and five inches in diameter, so that probably it is
the production of a shrub; it is clouded with red and yellow colours,
and is used for bordering and for making small articles, such as
caddies and work-boxes.
"Zebra-wood is probably the production of a large tree, as it is cheap
enough to be made into tables, pianofortes, &c.; it is coloured brown
on a white ground and clouded with black.
"Satin-wood is of a brilliant yellow colour with delicate glowing
shades. It is the produce of a plant called Chloroxylon Swienteria,
a native of India; it is one of the trees that yield the wood-oil of
India, and belongs to the natural order Cedrelaceæ, the same order in
which the mahogany is placed; it is found in the market in logs two
feet wide and seven or eight feet long.
"Sandal-wood is the produce of a species of Sandoricum belonging
to the family Meliaceæ; the wood is of a light brown colour with
golden-coloured waves.
"Ebony and Iron-wood are the names given to some very hard woods, the
produce of the natural order Ebenaceæ. These woods are mostly brought
from India, although some of the species are found in Europe and
America.
"There are several other woods occasionally used amongst
cabinet-makers, of which little is known, either with regard to the
places they come from, or the trees to which they belong. Canary-wood
has a yellow colour; Purple-wood has a purple colour, without veins;
Snake-wood is of a deep colour with black shades; Calander-wood is a
handsome cheap wood taking a high polish, and is brought from Ceylon.
"Other woods are named after the places they come from, as
Coromandel-wood, Amboyna-wood, &c."
Woods are largely used as dye-stuffs; the chief of these is log-wood,
which has a deep red colour, is very heavy and solid, and yields a
great deal of red colouring matter. It is very astringent, and contains
tannic and gallic acids, from which properties it produces a deep black
colour when mixed with any of the salts of iron; from this peculiarity
it is very valuable as a black dye, but the black dye so extensively
used for dyeing cloth, is, for the most part, made from galls, or
"nut-galls," as they are sometimes called. These are hard round
substances found growing on many species of oak, chiefly the "Quercus
infectoria," and the best are brought from Aleppo; they are diseased
growths produced by a little insect, called the "Cynips Quercus,"
which deposits its eggs under the epidermis of the leaf, and the juice
collects and forms the gall (fig. 22), from the interior of which the
larva eats its way out; thus it will be found that every gall must have
a little round hole in it, whence the larva of the cynips has issued.
[Illustration: FIG. 22--ALEPPO GALL.]
The root of the Madder plant (Rubia tinctorum) produces the most
beautiful and permanent of our red dyes, and the cochineal insect
(Coccus cacti) obtains its colour from feeding upon the cactus.
A useful and very permanent blue dye is obtained from Indigo, a kind of
extract from the plant "Indigofera," growing in India and other places,
and many other members of the vegetable kingdom yield dyes and colours
used in the arts.
Amongst the various and almost endless purposes to which wood is
applied, that of serving as a material to engrave on and print from
must not be omitted. The wood used for this purpose is that of the
box-tree (Buxus sempervirens), which furnishes a close, even-grained,
hard wood, admirably suited to the purpose; and the cultivation and
perfecting of this most admirable art, has produced an improvement in
book-illustrating which can hardly be sufficiently appreciated.