Uses.--The Padre Mercado writes as follows concerning the properties of this plant: "The leaves, applied with salt in the form of a plaster, purify dog bites, foul, putrid, malignant and cankerous ulcers; they cure boils, contusions and all abscesses; mixed with wax they may be applied for obstruction of the spleen; mashed with the juice and inserted in the nose they arrest nose-bleed; cooked with snails they soften the stomach, excite the secretion of urine and dissipate flatus; the juice given as a gargle aborts inflammation of the epiglottis. The seeds mixed with wine are a sexual excitant and "clear out" the womb; taken with syrup they relieve dyspnoea, pain in the side and inflammation of the lungs and force up the humors from the chest; it may be mixed with medicines that corrupt the flesh (sic). The grated root drunk with wine relieves painful flatulence. I myself (continues the Padre Mercado) have experimented with a woman who suffered with painful flatulence and this remedy relieved her." We repeat that all the foregoing is copied from the writings of Padre Mercado and we offer it as a therapeutic curiosity. P. Blanco states that merely to touch the leaves causes an intolerable itching. Botanical Description.--A small tree, 12-15° high, trunk richly branched. Leaves opposite, bunched at the ends of the branches, notched at the base, long, ovate, serrate, hairy on both surfaces. Flowers yellowish-white, dioecious. Staminate: In compound racemes; calyx 4 parts; corolla none; stamens 4, inserted on the base of the calyx. Pistillate: Flowers in 2-forked umbel, flat, very large; calyx, none; stamens none; stigma 1; seed heart-shaped. Habitat.--Very common in all the fields and in the mountains. Blooms in June. CASUARINEÆ. Beefwood Family. _Casuarina Sumatrana_, Jung. (_C. equisetifolia_, Blanco.) Nom. Vulg.--_Agoho_, Tag.; _Malabohok_, _Agoho_, Vis.; _Aro_, _Karo_, _Agoó_, Iloc. Uses.--The bark is astringent by virtue of the large quantity of tannin it contains. Its principal use is in decoction in the treatment of diarrhoea, dysentery and hæmoptysis; it is also given in amenorrhoea, though it is apt to increase the pain. Externally it is used as a wash for contusions and ulcers. Another species, _C. equisetifolia_, Forst., confounded with the former species by the natives, has the same therapeutic applications.