PISTIACEJE. 



leaves. Flowers short-peduncled from the centre of the leaves, few 

 and in succession, small, pale-yellow. Spathe inferior, 1-leaved, tubular, 

 irregular ; tube obliquely bell-shaped, woolly on the outside ; with a cre- 

 scent-shaped, fleshy, yellow gland on the centre of the inside, opposite 

 to the stigma; border cordate, woolly on the outside; margins a little 

 waved ; on its middle there is a green, fleshy, crenulate, saucer-shaped 

 body, from the centre of which rises the antheriferous column. Sta- 

 mina; filaments single, from the centre of the upper border of the 

 calyx. Anthers 5, adjoined to the enlarged apex of the short column. 

 — The whole plant is acrid. In Jamaica it communicates this quality 

 to the water tanks in which it grows, and is said to give rise to the 

 bloody flux. Browne. The Hindoos consider the decoction demulcent 

 and cooling and prescribe it in dysuria ; the leaves are also made into 

 a poultice for the piles. 



G08 



