SACCHARUM. 



pound, and supra-decompound ; glumes surrounded by wool. Paleaa 

 2, on the same (anterior) side, the inner one very small. Scales 2, 

 large, broad cuneate, crenulate, fleshy, occupying the two posterior 

 sides of the ovary, opposite to the two paleae. Roxb. — From this 

 Chinese sugar is made. 



1305. S. officinarum Linn. sp. pi. 79. Tussac.fl. des. Ant. i. 

 t. 23. Roxb.fl. ind. i. 237. Kunth. agrost. 474. — Cultivated 

 in both Indies, but its native country uncertain. (Sugar cane.) 



Stems solid, from G to 12 feet high, yellow, purple, red or striped. 

 Leaves flat. Panicle terminal, spreading, erect, oblong, from 1 to 3 

 feet long, gray from the quantity of long loose hairs that surround the 

 florets ; the branches alternate and very spreading. Rachis striated. 

 Florets 5* in pairs. Glumes smooth. Palea smooth, membranous, 

 pink. — The sugar cane is usually reckoned a medicinal plant, although 

 it hardly deserves a place in a Medical Flora. Dr. Chisholm however 

 says that its juice is the best antidote to arsenic. 



*%* A great many other species have been named as possessing 

 medicinal properties, but they either are not well authenticated, or 

 appear to be unimportant. It is uncertain whether the Carapoucha, or 

 Carapullo, cited by Mr. Pereira from Frezier as a narcotic grass, is 

 really of this order. I cannot trace the name, and the only Lima plant 

 that I find bearing a name at all like it is Physalis pubescens, which 

 according to the Flora Peruviana is there called Capidi. 



CYPERACE^E. 

 Nat. syst. ed.2. p. 384. 



No plants of this order appear of any medicinal consequence ; 

 the following have, however, been named as medical plants, among 

 several others. 



1306. Cyperus longus Linn, as a stomachic. 



1307. Cyperus rotundus Linn, as a stomachic. General 

 Hardwick says that its tubers have been given with benefit in 

 cholera. 



CAREX. 



Flowers unisexual, imbricated in cylindrical or ovate heads. 

 $ . Bracts single, triandrous, withering and dry. $ . Bracts 

 permanent, solitary, mucronate. Glumes 2, united into a com- 

 pressed bifid utricle, containing a compressed or triangular di- 

 gynous or trigynous fruit. 



1308. C.arenaria Linn, sp.pl. 1381. Eng. Bot. t. 928. Smith 

 Eng. Ft. iv. 86. — Sandy sea coast of Europe. 



613 r r 3 



