Chapter V · USES OF PLANTS TO MAN (continued 2)

This brief review of what the plant world provides us with in the shape of foods, beverages, fibers, drugs, rubber, spices, and tobacco, does not begin to tell us what man’s debt to plants really is. Thousands of plants, used by natives all over the world, may well provide future generations with unsuspected sources of plant products. No mention has been made of timbers nor all the forest products, except paper, which in the aggregate total an enormous sum. Perhaps no better idea of the tremendous value of plants, of the absorbing interest their utilization has always had for man, can be gained than to refer the reader to incomparably the best book on the subject, so far as tropical plants are concerned. Sir George Watt, in his “Dictionary of the Economic Products of India,” a book of several volumes, most of which deals with plants, has left an imperishable record of man’s struggles to tame the wild plants of the forest to his needs.

A few more economic plants not yet noted are listed below, and with this our account of plants as they are used by man must close:

Plant Product Derived from the Native of

AbsintheFoliage of Artemisia absinthiumEurope.

Brazil nutSeeds of Bertholletia excelsaTropical S. America.

CamomileFlowers of Anthemis nobilisEurope.

CassavaRoots of species of ManihotTropical America.

Water chestnutsFruits of Trapa natansSouthern Europe.

Cohune nutFruits of Attalea CohuneCentral America.

CorkBark of Quercus SuberSouthern Europe and northern Africa.

Gamboge resinStems of species of GarciniaSoutheastern Asia.

Gum arabicExudation of species of AcaciaTropical Asia and Africa.

HopsFemale flowers of Humulus LupulusEastern Europe.

IndigoWhole plant of Indigofera tinctoriaIndia.

MushroomWhole plant of Agaricus campestrisTemperate regions.

TeakWood of Tectona grandisSoutheastern Asia.

Japanese varnish or lacquerSap of Rhus verniciferaChina.