894 APOCYNACEZ. 
ministration Mr. O. C. Dutt prefers a watery extract of the 
root bark, of which the average dose is about three grains in 
combination with half a grain or more of opium. 
Other European physicians have preferred the powdered 
bark, or a decoction made with 2 oz. of the bark to 2 pints of 
water, to be boiled down to one pint. The impure alkaloid 
(wrightine) is bitter, and has been used with some success as 
an antiperiodic, andin the treatment of dysentery occurring 
in aged persons ard infants. It is sold by druggists in 
Calcutta 
For an exhaustive analysis of the botanical confusion which 
has arisen in connection with this plant and the various species 
of Wrightia, we would refer our readers to an article by M. R. 
Blondel (Nouveaue Remédes, Sept. 24, 1887,) in which the bota- 
nical history and structure of Holarrhena antidysenterica is 
fully discussed and illustrated. 
Description. —_Three hie eee =taite are fre- 
‘quently called Kura, Koda or Kuda in the Indian vernaculars; 
Holarrhena antidysenterica, Wrightia tomentosa, and Wrightia 
tinctoria. They may be distinguished most readily by an 
examination of the follicles and seeds. H. antidysenterica has 
the pair of follicles separate, W. tomentosa has them connate, 
separating when quite ripe, and W. tinctoria has follicles con- 
nected at the apex only. In Holarrhena the seeds have a 
tuft of hairs onthe end most remote from the foot-stalk, 
_ whilst in the Wrightias the tuft is on the end next Bor foot- 
stalk. 
The young bark of Fivtasthen sc; is grey and susaly Stacoth ; 
on the older branches it is externally of a brown colour, aka 
searred from the exfoliation of portions of the suber; inter- 
nally it is of a cinnamon colour, and the cambium layer when 
present smooth and nearly white. The root bark resembles 
that of the older — ‘bat: is- of @ deeper and more rusty 
-brown colour, _ 
_ ‘The sceds radial Sata, % are very bitter, and are contained 
in long. follicles about the thickness of a quill. als are > of A. é 
Pe 
ae 
