48 FLORA HOMCKOFATHICA. 



rally five-nerved and leathery ; the larger leaves are four inches 

 in breadth. The flowers small, greenish-white, and terminate. 

 The branches in a kind of fasciculated umbel, and they have a 

 very disagreeable smell. The calyx is five-partite, tubular, 

 deciduous. Corolla tubular, monopetalous ; tube inflated at 

 the middle and very long. Stamens five, inserted over the 

 divisions of the corolla. Ovarium two-celled. Style the length 

 of the corolla. Stigma capitate. Berry round and smooth, 

 about the size of a large apple, covered with a smooth, hardish 

 shell, of a beautiful orange colour; when ripe, filled with a white, 

 soft, gelatinous pulp, which is greedily eaten by birds. Seeds 

 several (generally five), found in the pulp, and attached to a 

 central placenta. These seeds are the officinal Nux Vomica. 

 Geographical Distribution.— A native of the East Indies : 



Malabar 



in Ceylon, and the Eastern Archipelago. 



MEDicrx 



The Seeds (Nuces Vomicae). These seeds, as found in the 

 shops, are circular and flat, about an inch in diameter, slightly 

 convex on one side, and concave on the other (the Germans 

 call them Krahengen, or Crows 5 eyes), everywhere covered with 

 fine satiny hairs attached to a fine covering, the outer coat 



(testa) 



c 



and immediately envelopes the nucleus of the seed. " This 

 nucleus is composed of two parts, viz., albumen and embryo. 

 The albumen is bipartite, cartilaginous, or horny, of a dirty white 

 colour, and of an intensely bitter taste, and has in its interior 

 a cavity {loculamentum verum) ; unlike that of most seeds, the 

 albumen of Nux Vomica is of a poisonous nature. The embryo, 

 which is milk-white, is seated in the circumference of the seed : 

 its locality being frequently indicated by a point somewhat 

 more projecting than the surrounding parts. It consists of two 

 large, cordiform, acuminated, triple-ribbed, very thin cotyle- 

 dons, a distinct cauliculus, and a centripetal radicle {i. c., a 

 radicle directed towards the centre of the back). Pdleticr and 



