CINCHONACE^E. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 243. 



Tribe I. Cinchoneje. 



Fruit capsular, 2- celled ; cells many-seeded. Seeds winged. 

 Albumen fleshy : — Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite. Stipules 

 interpetiolar. DC. 



UNCARIA. 



Limb of calyx short, urceolate, 5-cleft. Corolla funnel-shaped ; 

 tube slender ; throat naked ; lobes 5, spreading, oval oblong ; 

 anthers enclosed or protruded. Style filiform, protruded, stigma 

 tumid undivided. Capsules pedicellate, clavate, tapering to 

 the base. Seeds numerous, imbricated, winged. — Climbing 

 shrubs. Peduncles when old becoming axillary compressed 

 hooked spines. Flowers in loose heads. 



827. U. Gambir Roxb.fl. ind. i. 517- DC.prodr. iv. 347. — 

 Nauclea Gambir Hunter in linn, trans, ix. t. 22. As. res. xi. J 87. 

 (Rumph. v. t. 34. f. 2 and 3.) — Islands of the Indian Archipelago. 



Leaves opposite, short-stalked, from ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 

 entire, acute ; smooth on both sides ; about 4 inches long and 2 broad ; 

 stipules oblong, uniting the upper margin of the base of the petioles, 

 deciduous. Spines axillary, solitary, or in opposite pairs, simple, 

 recurved, hooked. Peduncles axillary, solitary, about the middle 

 jointed and bracted, supporting a single globular head of beautiful green 

 and pink, small florets. Bracts about the middle of the peduncle, forming 

 a 3-4-cleft annular involucre. Calyx silky on the outside with a 5-cleft 

 border. Tube of the corolla filiform; border of 5 obtuse divisions, 

 villous on the outside, and hairy in the centre of the inside. Filaments 

 short. Anthers large, on the mouth of the tube. Ovary turbinate, 

 sub-sessile, sericeous. Style as long as the tube of the corolla. Stigma 

 clavate. Capsules stalked, clavate, longitudinally grooved, crowned 

 with the 5-cleft permanent calyx, 2-celled, 2-valved. Seeds numerous, 

 imbricated, winged. — An extract called Gambier is prepared by the 

 Malays from the leaves of this shrub ; with some sweetness, it has a 

 more astringent taste than Terra Japonica. Roxburgh considered it 

 one of the drugs, if not the only one, formerly called by that name in 

 Europe. The extract is chewed by the natives with Betle leaf and 

 Areca ; the leaves are chewed to relieve aphthous eruptions of the 

 mouth and fauces. Mr. Pereira considers this Gambier not to form 

 any of the Kinos of the shops, but to be one of the substances called 

 Catechu in commerce. Med. gaz. xviii. 790. 

 405 dd 3 



