SUBSTANCES REPUTED MEDICINAL. I5! 
externally to the bites of scorpions. The ashes of the plant yield 
a considerable quantity of. potash, which is used in washing 
clothes. The flowering spike has the reputation in India (Oude) 
of being a safeguard against scorpions,..which it is believed to 
paralyse. (Drury.) 
South Australia, New: South: Wales; Queensland and Nor- 
thern Australia. 
11. Adiantum eethiopicum, Linn., (Syn. A. assimile, Swartz ; 
A. trigonum, Labill.) ; N.O., Filices, B.FI., vii., 724. 
Common “ Maidenhair Fern.” 
This plant is said to possess medicinal properties, being 
slightly astringent and emetic. It has been used in Europe in 
making “Szrop de Capillatre,’ a demulcent drink, employed in 
diseases of the chest. 
All the colonies. 
12. Alstonia constricta, #.v.17,, N.O., Apocynez, B.FI., iv., 314. 
“Fever Bark.” ‘“ Bitter Bark.” 
This yellowish-brown, often thick and deeply fissured bark, is 
intensely bitter, and possesses valuable febrifugal and _ tonic 
properties. It is regularly quoted in London drug lists. A 
decoction is sometimes sold in the colonies as “ bitters.” 
Mr. Christy states that it is used by some English brewers of 
pale ale for export, as it produces neither headaches nor other ill 
effects of hops. It tastes remarkably like Cinchona bark, and 
seems to partake somewhat of the properties of both quinine and 
nux vomica. This drug is undoubtedly worthy of careful experi- 
ments by medical men. (See A. scholars.) 
The bark contains, according to Palm (who examined it in 
1863), a neutral resinous bitter principle, called by him a/séonzn, 
similar to cazlcedrin and tulucunin, a volatile oil, smelling like 
camphor, an iron-greening tannin, gum, resin, fat, wax, protein 
substance, oxalic acid, and citric acid. The ash, amounting to 
6.06 per cent. of the bark, contains in 100 parts :— 
