DRIMYS WINTERI. 
germina are from three to six, placed above the receptacle, tur- 
binated, or of the shape of an inverted fig, flat on the inside, and 
somewhat higher than the stamina; they have no styles, but 
terminate in a stigma, divided into two or three small lobes,” 
CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. 
The bark of the Drimys Winter: attracted the attention of 
navigators, from its warm, spicy, aromatic properties; and in the 
treatment of scorbutic disease, which broke out in vessels going 
into the Straits of Magellan, was a very valuable auxiliary, It 
is rarely brought into the market as a drug, and has become 
very scarce in commerce. It is sometimes confounded with Ca- 
nella Alba, from which it differs in color, as it is pale yellowish, 
or dull reddish-gray, with elliptical dull brown spots externally, 
and brown internally. It has an aromatic odor and a warm bit- 
terish taste. Winter’s Bark was found by M. Henry to contain 
resin, volatile oil, coloring matter, tannic acid, several salts of 
potassa, malate of lime, and oxide of iron. The presence of tan- 
nic acid and oxide of iron serves to distinguish it essentially from 
the Canella Alba, as these chemical evidences are present in one 
case and not in the other. 
Drimys Wintert is stimulant, aromatic, and tonic, and may 
be employed in all cases in which the Canella and Cinnamon 
are indicated. It was much praised by the discoverer as an 
anti-scorbutic. Ferrein states that the natives of Terra del 
Fuego employ it to preyent a cutaneous disease to which they 
are subject, from eating seals’ flesh. 
Some confusion is apparent among the authors who have 
treated upon the tree, with respect to its name; hence the dif- 
ferent appellations by which it has been described, The term 
Winterana Aromatica was bestowed by Linneus, in commemo- — 
ration of its discoverer; in so doing, however, he mistook it for 
the Canella Alba, and gave the account of the fructification of 
that plant. Browne, however, had stamped that genus with the 
name of Canelia. Foster having obtained the parts of fructifica- 
tion, gave to the plant the name of Drmys Winrert, from its 
hot and pungent flavor. Murray, in his Linn. Syst. Veg. gave 
the generic name Wintera, which he preferred to the original 
_ Linnean one, and finally De Candolle has adopted the name of 
_ Foster, in imitation of Lamarck, The species which Lamarek — 
ealls Drimys Punctata is a variety only, . | 
