Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/165

 ICE PLANT ICHNEUMON 157 yields to cold water, has been extracted, boil- ing water is to be poured upon the mass, when, by keeping up a considerable heat and by several hours' steeping, an abundant and soothing mucilage is given out, and can be used with freedom, the drink being made pala- Iccland Moss (Cctraria Islandica). table with a little sugar. Hooker says that after being purged of its bitterness the lichen " is dried, reduced to powder, and made into a cake or boiled and eaten with milk, and eaten with thankfulness too, by the poor natives" of those countries where it grows abundantly, " who consider that the very stones yield them bread." The mucilaginous character is owing to a great abundance of lichen starch. Even the bitter principle is tonic and useful in the treatment of disease. Similar alimentary sub- stances are found in other lichens, resulting from the presence of this kind of starch. ICE PLANT (mesembryanthemum crystalli- num, Linn.), the common name of a plant origi- nally brought from the Canary islands and Greece. In the Canaries it used to be largely cultivated in order to procure alkali for making glass. Each plant spreads over the ground from a small annual root, and has numerous succulent branches covered with large heart- shaped or ovate, tender, and succulent leaves, the cuticle of both being elevated into many crystalline vesicles which contain a gummy prin- ciple insoluble in water ; they give the plant the appearance of being covered with hoar frost, and suggested the specific and common name. Cowper calls it the " spangled beau." The ses- sile flowers are about half an inch across, and have numerous linear, white or purplish petals, but are of little beauty, and only produced in the middle of bright days. It is raised from seed which should be started in a pot or hot- bed, and the young plants set out in a dry warm place. It was formerly much more cul- tivated than at present. In southern Califor- nia the ice plant is naturalized, and grows in great quantities ; the Spanish inhabitants burn the stems for the sake of the ashes to use in soap making. Under the name of glaciate the ice plant is cultivated in the French kitchen gar- dens, and is used as an ingredient of soups, as a garnishing for salads, and as a substitute for spinach. (See MESEMBRYANTHEMUM.) ICHNEUMON (Gr. IXVMUV, to track), a viver- rine carnivorous animal, of the genus herpestes (Illiger). The cheek teeth are f l| ; the body is long and the legs short; head small and pointed; ears short and rounded; feet five- toed, with sharp semi-retractile claws ; a large anal pouch, in which the vent opens. Of the several species described, the best known is the ichneumon of Egypt (H. ichneumon, Linn.), known also as Pharaoh's rat. It is a little larger than a cat, with a gait more like a mar- ten, and the long tail ending in a divergent tuft ; the muzzle and paws are black, and the fur of the body has each hair alternately ringed with brown and dirty yellow. It is an inhabitant of N. E. Africa, especially Egypt. It was adored by the ancient Egyptians for its antipathy to the crocodile, whose eggs it de- stroys in great numbers; they saw in it the Egyptian Ichneumon (Herpestes ichneumon). representative of a benign power engaged in the destruction of one of their most trouble- some enemies. Its natural food consists of rats, reptiles, birds, and eggs, but it has no special antipathy to the crocodile. It is itself destroyed by foxes and jackals. The ichneu- mon is frequently domesticated in Egypt, where it is used like the cat in ridding houses of rats and smaller pests ; it forms attach- ments to persons and places, and recognizes with signs of pleasure the caresses of its mas- ter. The mongous of India (H. mungos, Linn.) is a little smaller than the ichneumon, paler and more grayish, and with a pointed tail ; it has a singular antipathy to serpents, which it destroys whenever it can, not hesitating to at- tack even the deadly cobra de capello ; against the bite of the latter it is said to find an anti- dote in the ophiorrhiza mungos, a root which is considered in Ceylon as a specific against the cobra's bite in man. It is as mischievous, and in the same way, as the polecat and wea- sels. The garangan of Java (H. Javanicus, Geoffr.) is chestnut brown, with yellowish