AQUIFOLIACEjE. 



MYG1NDA. 



Calyx 4-parted, small, persistent. Petals 4, rounded, plane, 

 spreading. Stamens shorter than the corolla. Style short, with 

 2—4 stigmas. Drupe globose, 1 -celled, with a 1 -seeded nut. 



803. M. Uragoga Swartz prodr. 39. Jacq. amer. 24. t. 16. 

 R. and S. iii. 501. — Carthagena, St. Martha near the coast. 



An erect shrub, about 3 feet high on tbe coast, as much as 8 feet 

 high in inland woods. Leaves ovate or lanceolate, acute, finely serrated, 

 opposite or alternate, with short red stalks. Peduncles filiform, axillary, 

 opposite, bifid, with each division 3-flowered. Flowers small, deep red. 

 Fruit soft, red, the size of a small pea. — A decoction or infusion of the 

 root a most powerful diuretic. 



PRINOS. 



Flowers polygamous. Calyx half 6-cleft, permanent. Corolla 

 rotate, 6-parted. Filaments 6, subulate, erect. Style short, 

 with an obtuse stigma. Berry with 6 stones. 



804. P. verticillatus Linn. sp. pi. 471. Bigel. med. hot. iii. t. 56. 

 DC. prodr. ii. 17. — Edges of streams and ponds in the United 

 States. (Black Alder.) 



A shrub, in growth irregular, but most commonly 6 or 8 feet in 

 height. Leaves alternate or scattered, on short petioles, oval, acute at 

 base, sharply serrate, acuminate, with some hairiness, particularly on 

 the veins underneath. Flowers small, white, in little imperfect axillary 

 umbels, which are nearly sessile. Calyx small, 6-cleft, persistent. Co- 

 rolla monopetalous, spreading, without a tube, the border divided into 

 6 obtuse segments. Stamens erect, with oblong anthers ; in the barren 

 flowers they are equal in length to the corolla ; in the fertile ones, 

 shorter. Ovary, in the fertile flowers, large, green, roundish, with a 

 short style, and obtuse stigma. Fruit bright scarlet, roundish, supported 

 by the persistent calyx, and crowned with the stigma, 6-celled, containing 

 6 long seeds, which are convex outwardly and sharp-edged within. 

 These berries are bitter and unpleasant to the taste, with a little sweet- 

 ness and some acrimony. — Bark considered a valuable tonic especially 

 in cases of great debility accompanied by fever ; as a corroborant in 

 anasarcous and other dropsies ; and especially as a tonic in cases of 

 incipient sphacelus or gangrene. Berries also reputed tonic, but Bigelow 

 asserts that they are emetic. 



* # * The Paraguay tea, Mate, Yapon, or Verba de Palos, called Ilex 

 Paraguariensis by Augaste de St. Hilaire, Cassine Gongonha by Von 

 Martins, and Myginda ? Gongonha by De Candolle, is said by Von 

 Martius to deserve notice as a diuretic. 



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