i: MEDICAL BOTANY. 
1 
STRYCHNES. 
: hrubs. ‘Tribe Eustrychnee. 
- wativati the corolla valvate. Embryo rather large. Trees or s 
- F aut agar ~opipectnttey - or from abortion one-celled, one-seeded ; seeds peltate, apterous. (Royle. 
wy % : : 
Mat. Med.) 
STRYCHNOS NUX VOMICA. 
LINNAUS. 
FOISON NUT. . 
Sex. Syst.—Pentandria, Monogynia. 
Gen, Cuar.—Calyz four to five parted. Corolla tubular, with a spreading 4—5 cleft limb, and a Mee a 
tion. Stamens 4—5 inserted into the throat of the corolla, which is either naked or bearded. Ovary ae , Wl : 
indefinite ovules attached to a central placenta. Style one. Stigma capitate. Berry corticated, sr : , fs 
seeded, or by abortion, one-seeded. Seeds nidulant, discoidal. _Albwmen large, cartilaginous, almost divided in 
; o with leafy cotyledons. (Lindley. 
See ey 2 often ste ge pretty thick. Branches irregular, covered with smooth ash- 
coloured bark ; young shoots highly polished, deep green; wood white, hard, close grained, and bitter. sone He } 
site, short stalked, oval, shining, smooth on both sides, from three to five-nerved, or rather between that an be 2 ; 
quintriple, differing in size from one and a half to four inches long, and from one to three broad. Flowers small, ie i] 
ish white, collected in small terminal corymbs. Calyz five-toothed, permanent. Filaments scarcely any, or i 
ingly short, inserted over the bottom of the divisions of the corolla. Anthers oblong, half within the tube, an a 
without. Ovary two-celled, with many ovules in each cell, attached to the thickened centre of the partition. bie 
the length of the tube of the corolla. Stigma capitate. Berry round, smooth, size of a pretty large apple, cove 
with a smooth, somewhat hard shell, of a rich orange colour when ripe, filled with a white, soft gelatinous pulp. Seeds 
several, immersed in the pulp of the berry. 
This plant is a native of the Fast Indies, 
appears to have been known to the Arabians. 
baricus, and from it Linneus formed his genus 
growing in British India and Persia, as well as other parts. The res 
The plant was discovered and figured by Rheede in his Hortus — a 
Strychnos. All parts of it are endowed with the properties—but ye 2 
seeds alone are officinal. The bark in 1837 was fully determined by Dr. O’Shaughnessy, to be identical with a 
False Angustura, which conclusion had previously been arrived at by Drs. Pereira and Christison. ne 
The seeds (nuces vomice) are round, flat, an inch in diameter, two lines in thickness, rounded and smooth on the — 
margins, a little conca 
ve on one surface, with an umbilical prominence, slightly convex upon the other; they are of an 
ash-gray colour, and covered with minute’ silk 
y hairs. They are composed of the testa and two flat hairy, — a 
cotyledons and the minute embryo; within the testa is a delicate membrane, the endopleura. ‘The seeds are extreme ie 
hard and difficult to pulverize. They have no odour, and a very bitter taste. | a : 
_ They contain igasuric acid in combination with strychnia and brucia, together with wax, gum, starch, and colowt 
ing matter. 
This article is one of the 
Its force is principally 
whole muscular sy 
(See Pereira, Mat. 
and roborant. Asa medicine 
most active, in its effects on the animal economy, of the whole list of the Materia Medica. 
. “ ie ‘ he 
al centre, through which, in sufficient amount, it a a 
Death, when it occurs, is of the most violent and terrific Kind. — 
Strychnia is sometimes used 
