its fruit, which affords the principal food for a large portion of
the inhabitants of Africa, Asia, and southern Europe, and likewise
of the various domestic animals--dogs, horses, and camels being
alike partial to it. The tree attains to a great age, and bears
annually for two hundred years. The huts of the poorer classes are
constructed of the leaves: the fiber surrounding the bases of
their stalks is used for making ropes and coarse cloth; the stalks
are used for the manufacture of baskets, brooms, crates, walking
sticks, etc., and the wood for building substantial houses; the
heart of young leaves is eaten as a vegetable; the sap affords an
intoxicating beverage. It may be further mentioned that the date
was, probably, the palm which supplied the "branches of palm
trees" mentioned by St. John (xii, 13) as having been carried by
the people who went to meet Christ on his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, and from which Palm Sunday takes its name.

338. PHORMIUM TENAX.--This plant is called New Zealand flax, on account
of the leaves containing a large quantity of strong, useful fiber,
which is used by the natives of that country for making strings,
ropes, and articles of clothing. The plant could be grown in this
climate, and would no doubt be largely cultivated if some
efficient mode of separating the fiber could be discovered.

339. PHOTINIA JAPONICA.--The Japanese Medlar, or Chinese Lo-quat. It
bears a small oval fruit of an orange color when ripe, having a
pleasant subacid flavor. It stands ordinary winters in this
climate, and forms a fine evergreen, medium-sized tree.

340. PHYSOSTIGMA VENENOSUM.--A strong leguminous plant, the seeds of
which are highly poisonous, and are employed by the natives of Old
Calabar as an ordeal. Persons suspected of witchcraft or other
crimes are compelled to eat them until they vomit or die, the
former being regarded as proof of innocence, and the latter of
guilt. Recently the seeds have been found to act powerfully in
diseases of the eye.

341. PHYTELEPHAS MACROCARPA.--The vegetable ivory plant, a native of
the northern parts of South America. The fruit consists of a
collection of six or seven drupes; each contains from six to nine
seeds, the vegetable ivory of commerce. The seeds at first cont