oil, which is liberated by pressing and boiling them in water.

205. FICUS ELASTICA.--This plant is known as the india-rubber tree. It
is a native of the East Indies, and is the chief source of
caoutchouc from that quarter of the globe, although other species
of Ficus yield this gum, as well as several plants of other
genera. It is a plant of rapid growth, and from the larger
branches roots descend to the earth as in the case of the banyan
tree.

206. FICUS INDICA.--The famous banyan tree of history. Specimens of
this Indian fig are mentioned as being of immense size. One in
Bengal spreads over a diameter of 370 feet. Another covered an
area of 1,700 square yards. It is one of the sacred trees of the
Hindoos. It was known to the ancients. Strabo describes it, and it
is mentioned by Pliny. Milton also alludes to it as follows:

Branching so broad along, that in the ground
The bending twigs take root; and daughters grow
About the mother tree; a pillared shade,
High overarched, with echoing walks between.
There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,
Shelters in cool; and tends his pasturing herds
At loop-holes cut through thickest shade.

207. FICUS RELIGIOSA.--The pippul tree of the Hindoos, which they hold
in such veneration that, if a person cuts or lops off any of the
branches, he is looked upon with as great abhorrence as if he had
broken the leg of one of their equally sacred cows. The seeds are
employed by Indian doctors in medicine.

208. FLACOURTIA SEPIARIA.--A bushy shrub, used in India for hedges. Its
fruit has a pleasant, subacid flavor when perfectly ripe, but the
unripe fruit is extremely astringent. The Indian doctors use a
liniment made of the bark in cases of gout, and an infusion of it
as a cure for snake bites.

209. FOURCROYA CUBENSE.--This plant is closely related to the agave,
and, like many of that genus, furnishes a fine fiber, which is
known in St. Domingo as Cabuya fiber. These plants are very
magnificent when in flower, throwing up stems 20 to 30 feet in
height, covered with many hundreds of yucca-like blossoms.

210. FRANCISCEA UNIFLORA.--A Brazilian plant called Mercurio vegetal;
also known as Manaca. The roots, and to some extent the leaves,
are used in med