153. CURCUMA ZEDOARIA.--This plant furnishes zedoary tubers, much used in India as aromatic tonics.
154. CYATHEA MEDULLARIS.--This beautiful tree fern is a native of Australia, where it attains a height of 25 to 30 feet, having fronds from 10 to 15 feet in length. It contains a pulpy substance in the center of the stem, of a starchy, mucilaginous nature, which is a common article of food with the natives. The trees have to be destroyed in order to obtain it.
155. CYBISTAX ANTISYPHILITICA.--A plant of the order of _Bignoniaceæ_, called Atunyangua in the Andes of Peru, where the inhabitants dye their cotton clothes by boiling them along with the leaves of this plant; the dye is a permanent blue. The bark of the young shoots is much employed in medicine.
156. CYCAS REVOLUTA.--The sago palm of gardens. The stem of the plants abounds in starch, which is highly esteemed in Japan. A gum exudes from the trunk of the old plant, which is employed medicinally by the natives of India.
157. CYCAS CIRCINALIS.--A native of Malabar, where a kind of sago is prepared from the seeds, which are dried and powdered; medicinal properties are also attributed to the seeds.
158. DACRYDIUM FRANKLINII.--Called Huon pine, because of its being found near the Huon River, in Tasmania. It belongs to the yew family. It furnishes valuable timber, very durable, and is used for ship and house building; some of the wood is very beautifully marked, and is used in furniture making and cabinetwork.
159. DALBERGIA SISSOO.--A tree of northern India, the timber of which is known as Sissum wood. This wood is strong, tenacious, and compact, much used for railway ties and for gun-carriages.
160. DAMARA AUSTRALIS.--A singular plant of the _Coniferæ_ family, called the Kauri pine. It forms a tree 150 to 200 feet in height, and produces a hard, brittle resin-like copal, which is used in varnish.
161. DASYLIRION ACROTRICHUM.--A plant of the pineapple family, from Mexico. The leaves contain a fine fiber, which may be ultimately more extensively utilized than it is at present.
162. DESMODIUM GYRANS.--An interesting plant of the pea family, called the moving plant, on account of the rotatory motion of the leaflets. These move in all conceivable ways, either steadily or by jerks. Sometimes only one leaf or two on the plant will be affected; at other times a nearly simultaneous movement may be seen in all the leaves. These movements are most energetic when the thermometer marks about 80°. This motion is not due to any external or mechanical irritation.