MYRTACE.<£. 



3-celled, 3-valved ; valves thin, hard, and elastic, opening from the 

 apex. Seeds numerous, angularly wedge-shaped. — This is the species 

 that yields Cajuputi, an irritating or stimulating, green, aromatic campho- 

 rate essential oil used in toothach and rheumatic affections and as an 

 internal remedy in hysteria and epilepsy, flatulent colic, and cholera. 



151. M. Leucadendron Linn. mant. 105. by some said to 

 yield cajuputi oil, is asserted by Roxburgh to possess little or 

 no fragrance in its leaves, and not be ever employed, as far as 

 he could discover, in the distillation of that drug. 



PUNICA. 



Calyx turbinate 5-7-cleft : aestivation valvate. Petals 5-7. 

 Stamens numerous ; filaments distinct. Style filiform. Stigma ca- 

 pitate. Fruit large, globose, crowned by the somewhat tubular 

 limb of the calyx, baccate, indehiscent, covered with the tube of 

 the calyx, divided horizontally into 2 parts by a very irregular 

 confused dissepiment : the lower division 3-celled, the upper 

 5-9-celled ; dissepiments membranaceous : placentae in the 

 lower division at the bottom ; in the upper stretching from the 

 side of the fruit to the middle. Seeds numerous, nestling in a 

 pellucid pulp. Embryo oblong : radicle short, acute ; cotyledons 

 foliaceous, spirally convolute. — Small trees or shrubs with 

 spinescent branchlets. Leaves deciduous, opposite, rarely ver- 

 ticillate or alternate, often axillary and fascicled, oblong, quite 

 entire, not dotted. Flowers 2-3, nearly sessile on somewhat 

 terminal branchlets, usually scarlet. W. and A. 



152. P. Granatum Linn. sp. pi. 676. Bot. mag. 1. 1832. DC. 

 prodr. iii. 3. Fleming in As. Research, xi. 175. Woodv. t. 58. 

 S. and C. i. t. 57. — Bengal, Persia, China, Barbary. There 

 are whole woods of Pomegranate trees in the Persian province of 

 Mazenderan. JBurnes' Travels, ii. 126. (Pomegranate.) 



Arborescent. Leaves oblong, inclining to lanceolate. Flowers large, 

 red, with a pale succulent calyx. Petals much crumpled, membranous. 

 Fruit a round leathery pericarp, crowned by the prominent hardened 

 tube of the calyx, and containing several irregular cells filled with seeds 

 covered with a bright red, succulent, acid coat. — A decoction of the bark 

 of the root a powerful anthelmintic. The flowers are tonic and astringent, 

 as is the bark of the fruit which is used in leucorrhcea, chronic dysen- 

 tery, &c. The acid juice of the seeds found useful in bilious fevers. 



MYRTUS. 



Calyx- tube somewhat globose : limb 5 or very rarely 4-par- 

 tite. Petals 5 or very rarely 4. Stamens distinct. Berry 

 2-3-celled, somewhat globose, crowned with the segments 

 of the calyx. Seeds (ripe) in each cell several, or very 

 rarely solitary, reniform : testa bony. Embryo curved : coty- 

 ledons semicylindrical, very short : radicle twice the length 



74 



