1 84 



lary, double the length of the corolla, adhering at the bafe of the 

 men, and crowned with roundilh anthers : the germen is ov 



and fiipports a {lender ftyle, which is of the length of the filaments and 



terminated by a fimple iligma: the fruit, or pod, is lance-iliaped 



fmooth, compreffed, with an undulated thin margin ; it contains fix 

 or eight roundifh flattened feeds, which produce a naufeous odour 

 when chewed. This tree grows plentifully on the mountainous parts 

 of Indoftan, whert^it flowers in June. 



An Indian drug, known by the name of Terra Japonica, and now more 

 properly called Catechu, has long been an oflicinal medicine in Europe- 

 and though foon difcovered by chemical analyfis to be of vep-etable 



origin, yet neither v/as the plant from which it is produced nor the 



procefs by which it k prepared, fufhciently afcertained for near a 



y afterwards. "Writers on the Materia Medica very generally, 



from the time of Clufms, confidered the Catechu to be extraded fi 

 the feeds of a nut, the produce of a fpecies of palm; (Areca or 

 Beetle-nut) and conformably to this opinion, Linm^us, in both' the 

 editions of his Mat. Med. refers this, drug to the " Areca Catechu 

 frondibus pinnatis, foliolis replicatis oppofitis pn^morfis." We ar*- 

 told however by Mr. Kerr, that in the Province of Bahar, where th 

 Terra Japonica is raanufadured, the price of the A 



w 



c% 



ceeds that of the Catechu." But he thinks it probable that v/here 

 thi^ nut is in great plenty, " they may perhaps join fome of the 

 fruit ni makmg the extrad, to anfwer a double purpofe, for the moft 

 frequent ufe of both is in chewing them together, as Europeans 



f 



tobacco ; to thefe two ibbftances they add a little Ihell lime, and a 

 leaf called Pauwr ' Cleyerus and Herbert de Jager,^ more efpecially 

 the latter, have afferted, that the Catechu is not extraded from one 

 tree only, but from almoft all the fpecies of Acacia, whofe bark^ is 

 aitrmgent and reddifh, and from many other plants, which by boiling 

 yield ajmce of the like fort; and though thefe extrads differ confider- 



^ Mr. Kerr fays, if the Terra Japonica were extraded from this nut, it would b 

 twenty times dearer than m the prefent fales.- Vide I. c. 





e 



. . Hence the followino- lines : 



Cum fruau hoc Indos vefci, undVorccruento 

 Furpureum ejiciunt fuccum, tarn dentibus atrls 



VU ^^T A7 ^^"'•^'^^"S""^' ^clentibusoreminantur? 



Vide HSJI: Nat. Cur, Dec. 2. Jnn. 4. Qhf. 3. b^ Dec 2 ^^ 



> \ 



3./. 8 



*J 



ably. 



\ 



V 



