Page 57 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

56 THIRD BOOK OF
rence of ten feet. Its leaves are green on the up­ per part, and white beneath. The seeds are three in number, and contained in a pod, consisting of three cells, and in each of them there is a kernel, which, being stripped and boiled in water, produces a thick oil or t, answering the purposes of butter in the cookery of that country.
2. The Indians make incisions through the bark of this tree, chie y in wet weather; a milky juice oozes out, which is spread over moulds of clay; when the rst layer is dry, a second is put over it; this operation is repeated till the indian-rubber is of the thickness required. After this, it is placed over burning vegetables, the smoke of which hardens and darkens it. The natives apply it to various purpo­ ses; r water-proof boots, r bottles, and also r ambeaux, which give a very brilliant light, and bu r a great length of time. The principal uses to which indian-rubber is applied here, are the e ac­ ing of black-lead marks, r water-proof shoes, r balls, exible tubes, syringes, and other instruments used by surgeons and chemists. Cloth of all kinds may be made to resist water if impregnated with the esh juice of the syringe-tree. The bottoms of ships are sometimes sheathed with indian-rubber, cut very thin; it is said to preserve them om the injuries of shell- sh.
3. SPONGE is a marine production ; it was rmerly supposed to be a vegetable, but the opinion now generally entertained is, that it is a habitation con­ structed by a little worm, one of the species consid­ ered to occupy the lowest rank in the animal king­ dom. It is und adhering to various marine sub­ stances at the bottom of the sea, especially in the