A Catechism of Familiar Things; Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery. With a Short Explanation of Some of the Principal Natural Phenomena. For the Use of Schools and Families. Enlarged and Revised Edition.

CHAPTER IV.

CO­COA, TOD­DY, CHER­RIES, BARK, CORK, COCHINEAL, CLOVES, CIN­NA­MON, AND CAS­SIA.

Of what form is the tree which bears those large nuts, called Co­coa nuts?

It is tall and straight, with­out branch­es, and gen­er­al­ly about thir­ty or forty feet high; at the top are twelve leaves, ten feet long, and half a foot broad; above the leaves, grows a large ex­cres­cence in the form of a cab­bage, ex­cel­lent to eat, but tak­ing it off kills the tree. The co­coa is a species of Palm.

Is not the In­di­an liquor called Tod­dy, pro­duced from the Co­coa Tree?

Yes, be­tween the leaves and the top arise sev­er­al shoots about the thick­ness of a man's arm, which, when cut, dis­til a white, sweet, and agree­able liquor; while this liquor ex­udes, the tree yields no fruit; but when the shoots are al­lowed to grow, it puts out a large clus­ter or branch, on which the co­coa nuts hang, to the num­ber of ten or twelve.

_Dis­til_, to let fall in drops.

_Ex­ude_, to force or throw out.

[Il­lus­tra­tion: THE CATHE­DRAL OF MI­LAN, ITALY.]

How of­ten does this tree pro­duce nuts?

Three times a year, the nuts be­ing about the size of a man's head, and of an oval form.

Of what coun­tries is it a na­tive?

Of Asia, the In­dies, Africa, Ara­bia, the Is­lands of the South­ern Pa­cif­ic, and the hottest parts of Amer­ica.

What are the us­es of this Tree?

The leaves of the tree are made in­to bas­kets; they are al­so used for thatch­ing hous­es: the fi­brous bark of the nut, and the trunk of the tree, are made in­to cordage, sails, and cloth; the shell, in­to drink­ing bowls and cups; the ker­nel af­fords a whole­some food, and the milk con­tained in the shell, a cool­ing liquor.

From what coun­try was the Cher­ry Tree first brought?

From Cera­sus, a city of Pon­tus, in Asia, on the south­ern bor­ders of the Black Sea; from which place this tree was brought to Rome, in the year of that city 680, by Lu­cul­lus; it was con­veyed, a hun­dred and twen­ty-​eight years af­ter, in­to Great Britain, A.D. 55.

What is the mean­ing of A.D.?

A short way of writ­ing An­no Do­mi­ni, Latin words for _in the year of our Lord_.

Who was Lu­cul­lus?

A renowned Ro­man gen­er­al.

Is the wood of the Cher­ry Tree use­ful?

It is used in cab­inet-​mak­ing, for box­es, and oth­er ar­ti­cles.

What is Bark?

The ex­te­ri­or part of trees, which serves them as a skin or cov­er­ing.

_Ex­te­ri­or_, the out­side.

Does it not un­der­go some change dur­ing the year?

Each year the bark of a tree di­vides, and dis­tributes it­self two con­trary ways, the out­er part gives to­wards the skin, till it be­comes skin it­self, and at length falls off; the in­ner part is added to the wood. The bark is to the body of a tree, what the skin of our body is to the flesh.

Of what use is Bark?

Bark is use­ful for many things: of the bark of wil­lows and lin­den trees, ropes are some­times made. The Siamese make their cordage of the co­coa tree bark, as do most of the Asi­at­ic and African na­tions; in the East In­dies, they make the bark of a cer­tain tree in­to a kind of cloth; some are used in medicines, as the Pe­ru­vian bark for Qui­nine; oth­ers in dye­ing, as that of the alder; oth­ers in spicery, as cin­na­mon, &c.; the bark of oak, in tan­ning; that of a kind of birch is used by the In­di­ans for mak­ing ca­noes.

What are Ca­noes?

Boats used by sav­ages; they are made chiefly of the trunks of trees dug hol­low; and some­times of pieces of bark fas­tened to­geth­er.

How do the sav­ages guide them?

With pad­dles, or oars; they sel­dom car­ry sails, and the load­ing is laid in the bot­tom.

Are not the sav­ages very dex­ter­ous in the man­age­ment of them?

Yes, ex­treme­ly so; they strike the pad­dles with such reg­ular­ity, that the ca­noes seem to fly along the sur­face of the wa­ter; at the same time bal­anc­ing the ves­sels with their bod­ies, to pre­vent their over­turn­ing.

_Dex­ter­ous_, ex­pert, nim­ble.

Do they leave their ca­noes in the wa­ter on their re­turn from a voy­age?

No, they draw them ashore, hang them up by the two ends, and leave them to dry; they are gen­er­al­ly so light as to be eas­ily car­ried from place to place.

Were not books once made of Bark?

Yes, the an­cients wrote their books on the barks of many trees, as on those of the ash and the lime tree, &c.

Which part did they use?

Not the ex­te­ri­or or out­er bark, but the in­ner and fin­er, which is of so durable a tex­ture, that there are manuscripts writ­ten on it which are still ex­tant, though more than a thou­sand years old.

Is it not al­so used in Ma­nure?

Yes, es­pe­cial­ly that of the oak; but the best oak bark is used in tan­ning.

What is Cork?

The thick, spongy, ex­ter­nal bark of the Cork Tree, a species of oak. There are two va­ri­eties of this tree, the broad-​leaved and the nar­row: it is an ev­er­green, and grows to the height of thir­ty feet. The Cork Tree at­tains to a very great age.

Where is the Tree found?

In Spain, Italy, France, and many oth­er coun­tries. The true cork is the pro­duce of the broad-​leaved tree.

What are its us­es?

Cork is em­ployed in var­ious ways, but es­pe­cial­ly for stop­ping ves­sels con­tain­ing liq­uids, and, on ac­count of its buoy­an­cy in wa­ter, in the con­struc­tion of life boats. It is al­so used in the man­ufac­ture of life pre­servers and cork jack­ets. The great­est quan­ti­ties are brought from Cat­alo­nia, in Spain. The us­es of Cork were well known to the an­cients.

To what par­tic­ular use did the Egyp­tians put it?

They made coffins of it, lined with a resinous com­po­si­tion, which pre­served the bod­ies of the dead un­cor­rupt­ed.

What is Cochineal?

A drug used by the dy­ers, for dye­ing crim­sons and scar­lets; and for mak­ing carmine, a bril­liant red used in paint­ing, and sev­er­al of the arts.

Is it a plant?

No, it is an in­sect. The form of the Cochineal is oval; it is about the size of a small pea, and has six legs armed with claws, and a trunk by which it sucks its nour­ish­ment.

What is its habi­ta­tion?

It breeds in a fruit re­sem­bling a pear; the plant which bears it is about five or six feet high; at the top of the fruit grows a red flow­er, which when full blown, falls up­on it; the fruit then ap­pears full of lit­tle red in­sects, hav­ing very small wings. These are the Cochineals.

How are they caught?

By spread­ing a cloth un­der the plant, and shak­ing it with poles, till the in­sects quit it and fly about, which they can­not do many min­utes, but soon tum­ble down dead in­to the cloth; where they are left till quite dry.

Does the in­sect change its col­or when it is dead?

When the in­sect flies, it is red; when it is fall­en, black; and when first dried, it is grey­ish; it af­ter­wards changes to a pur­plish grey, pow­dered over with a kind of white dust.

From what coun­tries is the Cochineal brought?

From the West In­dies, Ja­maica, Mex­ico, and oth­er parts of Amer­ica.

What are Cloves?

The dried flow­er-​buds of the Clove Tree, an­cient­ly a na­tive of the Moluc­cas; but af­ter­wards trans­plant­ed by the Dutch (who trad­ed in them,) to oth­er is­lands, par­tic­ular­ly that of Ter­nate. It is now found in most of the East In­di­an Is­lands.

De­scribe the Clove Tree.

It is a large hand­some tree of the myr­tle kind; its leaves re­sem­ble those of the lau­rel. Though the Clove Tree is cul­ti­vat­ed to a great ex­tent, yet, so eas­ily does the fruit on falling take root, that it thus mul­ti­plies it­self, in many in­stances, with­out the trou­ble of cul­ture. The clove when it first be­gins to ap­pear is white, then green, and at last hard and red; when dried, it turns yel­low, and then dark brown.

What are its qual­ities?

The Clove is the hottest, and most acrid of aro­mat­ic sub­stances; one of our most whole­some spices, and of great use in medicine; it al­so yields an abun­dance of oil, which is much used by per­fumers, and in medicine.

_Acrid_, of a hot, bit­ing taste.

_Aro­mat­ic_, fra­grant, hav­ing an agree­able odor.

What is Cin­na­mon?

An agree­able, aro­mat­ic spice, the bark of a tree of the lau­rel kind; the Cin­na­mon tree grows in the South­ern parts of In­dia; but most abun­dant­ly in the is­land of Cey­lon, where it is ex­ten­sive­ly cul­ti­vat­ed; its flow­ers are white, re­sem­bling those of the lilac in form, and are very fra­grant; they are borne in large clus­ters. The tree sends up nu­mer­ous shoots the third or fourth year af­ter it has been plant­ed; these shoots are plant­ed out, when near­ly an inch in thick­ness.

How is the bark pro­cured?

By strip­ping it off from these shoots, af­ter they have been cut down; the trees plant­ed for the pur­pose of ob­tain­ing cin­na­mon, throw out a great num­ber of branch­es, ap­par­ent­ly from the same root, and are not al­lowed to rise high­er than ten feet; but in its na­tive un­cul­ti­vat­ed state, the cin­na­mon tree usu­al­ly ris­es to the height of twen­ty or thir­ty feet.

How is the Cin­na­mon Tree cul­ti­vat­ed?

By seed, sown dur­ing the rains; from shoots cut from large trees; and by trans­plant­ing old stumps. The cin­na­mon tree, in its wild state, is said to be prop­agat­ed by means of a kind of pi­geons, that feed on its fruit; in car­ry­ing which to their nests, the seeds fall out, and, drop­ping in var­ious places, take root, spring up, and be­come trees.

_Prop­agat­ed_, spread, ex­tend­ed, mul­ti­plied.

What else is ob­tained from this tree?

The bark, be­sides be­ing used as a spice, yields an oil high­ly es­teemed, both as a medicine and as a per­fume; the fruit by boil­ing al­so pro­duces an oil, used by the na­tives for burn­ing in lamps; as soon as it hard­ens, it be­comes a sol­id sub­stance like wax, and is formed in­to can­dles. Cam­phor is ex­tract­ed from the root. Cas­sia is cin­na­mon of an in­fe­ri­or kind.