46 | ORD. XXIV. Papilionaceer. PYTEROCARPUS ERINACEUS. 
what bitter to the taste, accompanied with a considerable degree of astrin- 
gency; it is usually met with in large fragments, very brittle, breaking with 
a glassy fracture; of a chocolate hue, and affording a brown-coloured pow- 
der: but it is not uniform in appearance, some of the fragments being of a 
palerhue. Water, at 60° dissolvesnearly one half, aud the infusion is of a brown 
colour, and transparent. Alcohol takes up rather more than two-thirds of 
its weight, forming a dark brown tincture. Ether dissolves about one-twen- 
tieth, and forms a brownish straw-coloured tincture; which, when evapo- 
rated on water, leaves a resinous pellicle, scarcely perceptible; a little ex- 
tractive is also deposited. The watery solution throws down a copious pre- 
cipitate of a pink colour, by gelatine; a deep brownish black, by a solution 
of oxy-sulphate of iron; a copious and quickly-formed olive black, by nitrate 
of silver ; a reddish precipitate, by oxy-muriate of mercury ; anda floogulent 
brown precipitate, by acetate of lead. 
Jamaica Kino,* which is now seldom to be met with, we are told by Dr. 
. A. T.Thomson, “is, in bitterness and roughness, nearly equal to the last 
variety (Botany Bay Kino); but these qualities are accompanied with a 
slight degree.of acidity. It is in brittle fragments of an almost black co- 
lour, having a shining fracture, in which appear small air-bubbles : the 
powder is of a dark reddish brown colour.” Water dissolves a large portion 
of this kino; the infusion is clear, and of deep reddish hue; it forms preci- 
pitates with gelatine, acetate of lead, nitrate of silver; oxy-sulphate of iron, 
and oxy-muriate of mercury, and also by potass and the mineral acids. 
African Kino} is inodorous, and insipid when first taken into the mouth ; 
but after some sime, it imparts a degree of roughness, with a very slight im- 
pression of sweetness, feels gritty between the teeth when chewed, and does 
in the sun. Some specimens of it, in its fluid state, have even reached this country. — 
oe New Dispensatory, 11th Ed. 
* Dr. Duncan says, “although this has been the longest known in commerce in this 
citv, I have not been able to trace the place of its origin. . It is evidently an extract.’— 
It is also scarcely to be distinguished from the extract of the Swietenia Soymida sent 
home by Dr. Roxburgh. 
+ This sort of Kino is esteemed the best, and is considered, as we have before ob- 
served, to be the product of the Pterocarpus erinaceus; but among the variety of resins 
and extracts, which (in commerce) have been denominated Kino, it is a matter of ex- 
treme difficulty to decide which is, or is not, the product of any specific plant, and the 
subject appears, altogether, involved in no little obscurity. 
