GALIPEA. 



Cusparia febrifuga Humb. tabl. geogr. Bonplandia trifoliata 

 Willd. act. berol. 1802. p. 24. HB. plant, aq. ii. t. 57. 



S. and C. iii. 1. 149. Angostura Cuspare R. and S. iv. 188. 



Forests of tropical America. 



A tree 60-80 feet high, evergreen, with an ash-coloured bark and a 

 pale yellow box-like wood. Leaves alternate, long-stalked ; leaflets 3 

 sessile, unequal, ovate-laneeolate, acute, smooth, entire, bright-green' 

 gratefully fragrant, with scattered glandular dots. Flowers in axillary 

 and terminal racemes, on a peduncle as long as the petioles. Calyx 

 and corolla white, with fascicles of hairs, seated on glandular bodies 

 on the outside. Anthers with two short appendages. — Said by Hum- 

 boldt to produce Angostura bark, but denied by Dr. Hancock, who as- 

 signs it to the following species. 



432. G. officinalis Hancock in med. bot. trans. 1829. p. 25. t. 2. 

 — Higher lands of the missions of Carony, between 7° and 8° 

 N. lat. It is also well known in the missions of Tumeremo, 

 Uri, Alta Gracia, and Cupapui, which are the southern and 

 back missions of the Orinoko. It lines the roadside in many 

 places between the missions of St. Antoni and Villa Upata. 

 Hancock. (Orayuri of the natives.) 



Bark smooth. Leaves alternate, 3-foliate; petiole about the length 

 of the leaflets, slightly channelled; leaflets oval, acute at the base, 

 acuminate at the apex, smooth, glossy, bright green, smelling when 

 bruised and fresh like Tobacco, 6-10 inches long, 2-4 broad ; some of 

 the leaflets are marked with small whitish round spots. Panicles cylin- 

 drical, contracted, stalked, longer than the leaves, with the branches 

 about 3-flowered. Calyx campanulate, 5-toothed, hairy. Corolla white, 

 somewhat curved before expansion, nearly an inch long, downy on both 

 sides ; of the 5 petals, two larger than the others. Sterile stamens 5, 

 subulate, tipped with a pellucid watery gland. Fertile stamens 2. Car- 

 pels 5, or fewer by abortion, becoming villous as they mature, 2-seeded 

 with a strong elastic separable 2-valved endocarp. — According to Dr. 

 Hancock this, which he found to yield the true Angostura or Carony 

 bark,is essentially different from the Cusparia febrifuga of Humboldt. An 

 excellent account of that bark is given by Dr. Hancock in the transac- 

 tions of the Medico Botanical Society ; " I am fully convinced, " says 

 this experienced physician, " from ample experience of the virtues of 

 this bark, that it is one of the most valuable febrifuges we possess, being 

 adapted to the worst and most malignant bilious fevers, while the fevers 

 in which Cinchona is chiefly administered are simple intermittents, for 

 the most part unattended with danger. The natives also use the bruised 

 bark as a means of intoxicating fishes, which affords a very singular 

 coincidence with what is mentioned by Dr. Saunders, of the same use 

 being made of Cinchona bark by the Peruvian Indians." 



433. Malambo Bark, an aromatic bark with very active bitter 

 astringent febrifugal properties, native of Columbia, the tree of 

 which is unknown, is described by Dr. Wm. Hamilton in the 

 Med. bot. trans. 1834. p. 67. It is supposed by Bonpland to be 

 furnished by some plant allied to Galipea. 



211 p 2 



