STRYCHNOS. 



informs me that Dr. Christison has lately found it identical with bark of 

 Strychnos Nux Vomica, obtained from India for comparison.* Blume 

 is of opinion that a great part of the Lignum colubrinum of commerce 

 consists of the thick roots, and wood of the middle-sized branches of 

 this species, more than of any other. The poisonous principle in this 

 and other plants of the genus is the Strychnia of chemists. 



1115. S. Colubrina Linn. sp. pi. 271. Roxb. fl. ind. i. 577. 

 Blume Rumphia i. 70. — Modira Caniram Rheede viii. t. 24. — 

 Malabar, and probably in Ceylon. (Naga Musadi of the Te- 

 lingas.) 



Stem of great size, often from 8 to 12 inches in diameter; the wood hard, 

 intensely bitter and of a light grey colour; the plant with its numerous 

 ramifications climbs over the highest trees. Bark ash-coloured, more 

 or less scabrous, according to the age and size of the part of the young 

 shoots, smooth and green. Tendrils lateral, simple, becoming thick and 

 ligneous. Leaves opposite, short petioled, from oval to oblong, entire, 

 obtusely acuminate, triple nerved ; nerves extending to the apex, tex- 

 ture rather thin, glossy, from 3 to 6 inches long, by 2 or 3 broad. 

 Stipules none. Corymbs terminal, small; composed of 2 or 3 pairs of 

 opposite, few flowered, short, villous branches. Flowers small, greenish- 

 yellow, in a subternary order. Bracts one under each division and 

 sub-division of the corymb, tapering, villous. Calyx 5-parted, clammy, 

 with glandular pubescence. Corolla infundibuliform, smooth. Tube 

 cylindrical. Border 5-parted ; segments linear-oblong, spreading. Fila- 

 ments five, short, inserted into the mouth of the tube of the corolla 

 under the fissures of its border. Anthers subsagittate. Ovary supe- 

 rior, ovate, smooth, 2-celled, with many ovules in each, attached to a 

 fleshy ridge down the middle of the partition. Style the length of the 

 corolla. Stigma capitate. Berry often as large as an orange, round ; in 

 the advanced state one cell only can be detected ; rind rather hard 

 and brittle ; colour from a bright yellow to a dirty looking mixture of 

 yellow and dull brown. Pulp gelatinous and yellow. Seeds from 2 

 to 12, orbicular, much flattened as in the Nux Vomica, peltate, nearly 

 an inch broad. Integuments 2 ; the exterior one thin, but tough, and 

 most densely clothed with soft, short hairs, like the softest velvet ; the 

 interior one a very thin brown membrane. Albumen conform to the 

 seed, united round the margins, the middle free; resembling two 

 cotyledons, horny. Embryo straight, much smaller than the albumen, 

 and lodged close to the umbilicus, which may be readily known by the 

 hair being longer at that part, forming a tuft round it. Cotyledons 

 cordate, 3-nerved. Radicle oval, pointing to the umbilicus (centripetal). 

 Roxb. — This is the most esteemed of all the Ligna colubrina by the 

 natives of India, and fetches so high a price among them as rarely to 

 find its way to Europe ; it is the true Pao de Cobra of the Portuguese. 

 The wood of the root is considered an infallible remedy for the bite of 

 the Naga or Cobra de Cape/la, as well as for that of every other venom- 

 ous snake. It is applied externally, and at the same time given 

 internally. It is also used in substance for the cure of intermittent 



* Since the above was written I have received the Madras Journal for April, 1837, in which 

 there is a valuable note upon this subject by Dr. O'Shaughnessy, Professor of Chemistry in 

 the Medical College, Calcutta. This gentleman confirms the statement that Nux Vomica 

 bark and False Angostura are identical ; and he adds that bi-ucea, which is extremely effec- 

 tual in the cure of paralysis, atrophy, chronic rheumatism, sciatica, &c. may be procured 

 from it in great abundance. 



529 m m 



