622 ORD. XXXVIII. Trihilate. swietexta MAnAGONr, 
boughs and twigs is grey and smocther.”* That intended for 
medicinal use should be the growth of the trunk, or rather of the 
larger branches, and is brought here in flattish or somewhat con- 
vex pieces, about a foot in length: its epidermis is rough, and 
immediately under it a thick spongy dark extraneous coat is ob- 
served; the inner efficient part of the bark is of a Jamellated tex- 
ture, tough. and of a deep reddish brown;” its taste is astringent 
and bitter, resembling the Peruvian bark, but, in the opinion 
of Murray, more bitter. 
On the testimony of Wright, Lind, and several other respectable 
authorities, this bark has been found to answer the general pur- 
poses of that of the cinchona, and like it also the different species 
of the tree agree in affording barks possessing in common a cer- 
tain share of febrifuge power, though in different degrees, and 
somewhat variable in their sensible qualities. Thus of the nine 
species: of cinchona, lately described by Vahl, the febrifuge 
character pervades the whole, at least as far as experiments have 
been made:* and Mr. Roxburgh, botanist to the East India Com+ 
pany, has discovered a new species of Swietenia, or Mahogany, 
the bark of which promises, from his account of it, to be a more 
efficacious medicine than that here described. This new species 
of mahogany is called by Mr. Roxburgh Swietenia febrifuga;¢ 
*. See London Medical Journal, vol. 8. p. 286. 
» This description nearly agrees with that of Murray; but I have found the bark 
to vary considerably in its appearance, and in its taste. 
* Yellow Peruvian bark, the produce of a species of cinchona, of which we find 
no botanical account, has been Jately brought to London. I have used it at the 
Small-pox Hospital with more advantage than J ever experienced from the best 
common bark. Its intense bitterness is the leading character in its sapidity, 
4 This and several other East India plants have been engraved at the expense of 
the East India Company, but have not yet been published; it differs from the 
common Mahogany, in having its flowers in large terminal compound spikes, and 
in its foliola being oblong, and very obtuse. 
