40 MEDICAL BOTANY. 
berries exhibit a quadruple structure of their envelope; the interior substance is white. Their smell is aromatic 
their taste warm, acrid, and bitter; they deteriorate by age and are best kept whole. Monheim found in them green 
volatile oil, yellow volatile oil, cubebin, balsamic resin, wax, chloride of sodium, extractive, lignin. 
Thunberg first described the Cubebs plant, but Myrepsicus was the first author who mentioned it, (Fee.) The 
introduction of this drug has been attributed to the Arabians, but of this there is some doubt. (See Pereira.) The 
term Cubebs comes from the Arabic word kabebeh. 
As a medicine, Cubebs are stimulating, with an especial tendency to operate upon the kidneys and genito-urinary 
organs. In large doses, producing inordinate excitement and disturbance of the sensorial functions. 
They are given in the form of powder or pills, and are sometimes prepared in tincture and extract. 
Pirate LXXXIV.—Represents the plant in flower, in fruit, and the organs of reproduction. 
CUPULIFERA. 
RICHARD. 
THE OAK TRIBE. 
CoryiLacez.—Mirbel. 
EssentiaL Cuar.—F lowers unisexual. Males amentaceous. Females aggregate or amentaceous. Males. Sta- 
mens five to twenty, inserted into the base of the ‘scales, or of a membranous calyx, generally distinct. Females. 
Ovaries crowned by the rudiments of a superior calyx, seated on a coriaceous involucre (cupule) of various figure, and 
with several cells and several ovules, the greatest part of which are abortive. Ovuies twin or solitary, pendulous. 
Stigmas several, subsessile, distinct. Fruit a long or coriaceous one-celled nut, more or less enclosed in the involucre. 
Seeds solitary, one, two, or three, pendulous. Embryo large, with plano-convex, fleshy cotyledons, and a minute supe- 
rior radicle. Trees or shrubs. Leaves with stipules, alternate, simple, often with veins proceeding straight from the 
midrib to the margin. (Lindley.) 
- The peculiarity of this tribe of plants is the existence of an abundance of tannin in their composition ; hence they 
possess powerful astringent properties. 
QUERCUS INFECTORIA. 
—~OLIVIER. 
THE GALL OAK. 
Sex. Syst.—Moneecia, Polyandria. 
Gen. Cuar.—Male Flowers lax, amentaceous, deciduous. Bract membranous in four, five, or more, deep, often 
divided segments. Filaments about eight or more, short, awlshape. Female flowers separate. Involucre hemisphe- 
rical, coriaceous, imbricated, single-flowered, entire, much enlarged in the fruit, and externally scaly or tuberculated. 
Calyz in six minute, deep, sharp, downy segments, closely surrounding the base of the style. Ovary globose, of three 
cells, with two ovules in each. Style solitary, short, conical. Stigmas three, obtuse, recurved. Nut solitary, oval, 
coriaceous, not bursting, of one cell, attached by a broad scar to the inside of the capsule. Embryo solitary, rarely 
two, with large plano-convex cotyledons, and a superior radicle. (Lindley.) mK 
Spectr. Cuar.—A small bush. Leav’s on short stalks, one, to one and a-half inches long, oblong, with a few 
coarse mucronate teeth on each side, bluntly mucronate, rounded and rather unequal at base, smooth, shining on the 
upper side. Acorns solitary, long, obtuse, with a hemispherical scaly cup. _ (Lindley.) . ae 
This species of oak, affording nutgalls, is among the smallest species of the genus. It is a native of Asia Minor, 
from the Bosphorus to Syria, and from the Archipelago to the frontiers of Persia. a3 a 
Nutgalls are excrescences produced on’ the bark of the plant by an insect. The following excellent account of 
