Miscellaneous intelligence. 453 



Hexandria, and Menisperme; a medicinal plant, known as Columuo in the 

 materia medica, the natural history of which has hitherto beeu little known . 

 It grows naturally in thick forests on the east coast of Africa; the roots are 

 dug- up in the dry season, March, and soon afterwards cut in slices, and 

 strung on cords, and dried in the shade. They are held in high esteem 

 among the natives for the cure of dysentry, the healing of ulcers, and as a 

 remedy for almost every disorder. 



Some/>f the roots have been imported to the Mauritius by Captain Owen, 

 and Professor Boyer is trying to propagate them by cuttings of the stem, as 

 they are found to increase very slowly by off-sets from, or divisions of, the 

 root. Should he succeed, the culture of Columbo root may become an 

 object of general industry in the Mauritius. As a medicine, this root has 

 been long known and esteemed, both in the East Indies and in Europe, 

 where it is found to be of singular efficacy in strengthening the fibres of the 

 stomach and bowels, not only in chronic cases, but in the cholera morbis, 

 dysentery, and diseases of the alimentary canal. 



Bomplandia, (Humboldt's Companion,) trifoliata ; Simaerubia. 



An elegant ever-green tree: from 60 to 80 feet high; a native of South 

 America, and the bark of which is known in the Pharmacopoeias under the 

 name of Augustura or Cusparia. This bark has a disagreeable smell, and a 

 hitter taste; slightly aromatic ; by analysis it contains cinchonia; resin, a 

 peculiar variety of extractive, carbonate of ammonia, and essential oil 

 There is a false bark employed in commerce ; but from what tree is not 

 correctly ascertained ; it is known from the other by having no smell, and 

 by being one of the most energetic of vegetable poisons; the true Augustura 

 bark is a valuable tonic, and has been considered more powerful in many 

 diseases than the Peruvian bark. 



Croton Eleuteria. Jamaica and St. Domingo, with brittle branches, 

 which, when broken, ooseout a thick balsamic juice. The bark has an agree- 

 able aromatic odour, and when burnt, emits a smell resembling that ot 

 musk. It has been used a good deal in Germany as a substitute for the 

 Peruvian bark, and also for mixing with tobacco for smoking. In England 

 it is used as a stomachic. 



QuercusRobur. Cut in spring, the bark will be found to contain four times 

 as much tannin as when obtained in winter. Oak bark is a powerful astrin- 

 gent and tonic, and united with bitters and aromatic?, has been recom- 

 mended in intermittents. When cinchona bark cannot be obtained, and the- 

 stomach rejects its preparatians, oak bark may be found of service ; but the 

 former is so superior to all its competitors, that oak bark is but a poor sub. 

 stitute. 



Querous infectoria. This species producees the nut-galls of commerce, 

 as Olivier in his travels in the Ottoman empire first discovered. It is scat- 

 tered throughout all Asia Minor, and as far as the frontiers of Persia. The 

 fruit is solitary, and nearly sessile. The galls are produced on the youn^r 

 branches, from the puncture of a small hymenopterous insect of the Lin- 

 nean genus Cynips, but which was first described by Oliver in the Encyclo 

 pedie Methodique, under the name of Diplolepis galla tinctoria, the insect 

 punctures the tender shoot with its curious spiral sting, and deposits its 

 egg in the puncture, in a few hours the cellular tissue swells, a turn-over is 

 produced, and the egg becomes enclosed in a fleshy chamber, which no' 

 only serves for shelter and defence, but also for food ; the larva feeding 

 upon its interior, and there undergoing its metamorphosis. The oak-apple 

 is an excrescence of the same nature, though effected by a different insect. 

 The best galls come from Aleppo; and the produce of the first gathering, 

 before the fly has issued from the gall, are the most valuable. With th'e 

 assistance of heat, galls are almost entirely soluble in water ; and the decoc- 

 tion precipitates the oxides of iron of a deep black colour. 



Amyris gileadensis. Terebintacea?. A small stunted looking ever-green 

 tree j a native of Arabia, near Yemen, and, 'according to Bruce, of Abv^- 

 nia. Though not a native of Judea, it was cultivated in great perfe. 

 many centuries before Christ in the gardens near Jericho, on the banks ot 

 th< Jordan ; and it was from Gilead, in Judea, whence the merchants 

 brought the resinous product to Egypt, that it derived its appellation of 



