62 FLORA HOMCEOPATHICA. 



our greenhouses, has an arborescent stem, very much branched ; 

 its leaves are three together, on short stalks, linear, lanceolate, 

 acute, entire, smooth, coriaceous, evergreen, and marked with 

 numerous transverse ribs or veins beneath. Flowers numerous, 

 terminal, corymbose, large, and handsome, but inodorous ; 

 usually of a rose colour, but occasionally white. Seed-vessels 

 six inches long, ribbed, almost woody. One of the most beau- 

 tiful of insects, Sphinx Nerii, feeds on this shrub, and is often 

 taken on the coasts of Nice and Genoa. 



Geographical Distribution. — Native of Spain, Portugal, 

 Italy, and the Levant ; Asia Minor, the East Indies, and Africa ; 

 and on the rocks of Corsica. Oriental travellers suppose this 

 to be the bay-tree, to which the righteous man is compared by 

 David. 



Localities. — About the banks of rivers, in low moist situ- 

 ations. In Italy, it usually decorates courtyards. 



Mode 



Hahnemann's instructions for the preparation of this plant are 

 the following. He says : u Although the medicinal virtue of the 

 Nerium Oleander does not appear to be very volatile, and 

 consequently a powerful medicine may be made from the dried 

 leaves powdered, yet to prepare an alcoholic tincture, in order to 

 obtain a medicine, the action of which should be always the same, 

 I am accustomed to take the green and fresh leaves, gathered at 

 the time that the plant is about to flower, to cut up about an ounce 

 of them into little pieces, and to moisten them in a mortar, with 

 sufficient alcohol to form a thick pulp, but well crushed ; after- 

 wards to add the rest of the alcohol (in all about an ounce), to 

 dilute the mass, and to strain this through a linen cloth; to let it 

 stand some days, in order that it may deposit its albumen and 

 fibrine, then to decant the clear liquor and set it aside." Jahr 

 recommends the first three attenuations to be made from the 

 dried leaves by trituration. 



Physiological Effects.— It is now well ascertained that 

 the effects ascribed to this plant by the ancients were baaed 



