THYMELACEjE. 



end of each flowering branch, usually in bunches of 3 together, with 

 their peduncles cohering. Calyx yellow, funnel-shaped, a an inch long, 

 with a contraction near the base and another in the middle, its border 

 dilated, and slightly and irregularly toothed. Stamens 8, much longer 

 than the calyx. Ovary ovate, placed obliquely, the style appearing to 

 issue from one side ; style capillary, curved, and longer than the 

 stamens. Fruit a small oval, acute, red, 1-seeded berry. — Bark acrid ; 

 in the dose of 6 or 8 grains it produces heat in the stomach and brings 

 on vomiting, especially when fresh. It sometimes acts also as a 

 cathartic. The bark is a vesicatory in a very slow degree ; the fruit is 

 narcotic, producing effects like those of Stramonium. Bigelow. 



HERNANDIACEiE. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 195. 



HERNANDIA. 



Flowers monoecious. $ . Calyx petaloid, 6-parted, with the 

 segments in 2 rows. Glands (sterile stamens) 6, stipitate, 

 placed around 3 stamens united at the base. Filaments short, 

 erect ; anthers opening laterally. $ . Calyx double ; exterior 

 inferior, short, urceolate ; interior petaloid, contracted above the 

 ovary, more than 8-parted, deciduous. Sterile filaments 4, 

 gland-shaped, arising from the bottom of the segments of the 

 calyx. Style included ; stigma broad, funnel-shaped. Ovary 

 with a single pendulous ovule. Fruit (according to Gaertner) 

 drupaceous, clothed with the inflated calyx, 8-furrowed, fungous 

 internally, with a 1-seeded kernel. Embryo without albumen, 

 inverted, with large lobed cotyledons. 



671. H. sonora Linn. hort. cliff. 485. t. 23. Jacq. amer. 245. 

 — (Pluk. aim. t. 208. f. 1.). — Various parts of both East and 

 West Indies. 



A tall erect tree. Leaves cordate, peltate, smooth. Flowers yel- 

 lowish, panicled. Fruit a dry, ovate, obtuse drupe, with 8 furrows and 

 an umbilicus. Calyx very large, inflated, roundish, depressed, succu- 

 lent, coriaceous, shining, coloured, with a small roundish entire mouth. 

 — The bark, seed, and young leaves are all slightly purgative. Rumph 

 says that the fibrous roots chewed and applied to wounds caused by 

 the Macassar poison, form an effectual cure. The juice of the leaves 

 is a powerful depilatory; it destroys hair, wherever it is applied, 

 without pain. 



326 



