108 ODOKOGKAPHIA. 



it after a district of that name where it was first found. This tree, 

 of the Xatural Order Rutacece, is described by Fltickiger and 

 Hanbury as being only 4 or 5 metres in height, with a trunk of 

 7 to 10 centimetres in diameter; other writers state the height to 

 be from 50 to 80 feet, with a straight trunk crowned with a tuft 

 of foHage, so presenting the appearance of a palm tree when 

 viewed from a distance. The leaves are bright green, very 

 odoriferous, and full of glandular dots.* They are alternate, ever- 

 green, on stalks of about a foot in length, and composed of three 

 sessile, oval-lanceolate, sharp-pointed, entire, smooth folioles of 

 about the same length as the stalk, but differing in length with 

 each other. The flowers are in axillary and terminal bunches ; 

 white, or slightly tinted with pink, of about two centimetres in 

 length, having a thick calyx formed of five white, short, unequal 

 sepals. Corolla iive-petaled. Stamens five to seven, but generally 

 only two are fertile. The fruit is formed of five capsules en- 

 veloped by the persistent calyx. 



Complete details of the microscopic structure of the bark, also of 

 the " False Angostura bark," and tests for distinguishing between 

 the two are given by the translators of the Pharmacographia.f 

 Under a lens the transverse fracture of the true bark shows a 

 number of white points or minute lines, which are not present in 

 the false bark (that of Strychnos Nux Vomica.)l 



As met with in commerce, true Angostura bark is in slightly 

 quilled or in flattish pieces of 15 centimetres in length at most, but 

 generally shorter. The flat pieces are 2J centimetres or rather 

 more in width, and ^ of a centimetre thick. The edges are sharp 

 and bevelled in a very characteristic manner, and the internal 

 surface is easily capable of being split into laminse. The outer 

 surface consists of a yellowish grey layer, generally sufficiently soft 

 to be easily removed by the nail, exposing the blackish-brown 

 resinous under- surface. The inner side is light brown, its rough 

 and exfoliated surface being indicative of its tenacious adhesion to 



* It is probable that an essential oil could be distilled from these leaves. 



t Fltickiger and Hanbury, Hist, des Drogues, i. p. 204. 



t See Pharm. Journ., 1836, p. 662, also Pharm. Journ. [3], iii. p. 663, and [3] 

 iv. p. 681. For figure of the true bark see F. and H. Hist, des Drogues, above 

 referred to, also Goebel und Kunze, Pt. i., taf. ii., figs. 1-4. Details as to the 

 means of distinguishing, chemically and otherwise, between the two barks, are 

 also given by Pereira, in Mat. Med. [ii.], part ii., p. 1915. 



