48 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. RHAMNACE. 
ing to Seemann,! the natives of the Feejee Islands use the powdered bark and leaves of C. Asiatica to 
clean the hair and to destroy vermin. 
The name Colubrina, from coluber, a serpent, was first used by Linneus as the specific name of 
the West Indian and Floridian plant, afterwards made the type of the genus. It probably was given to 
it on account of the peculiar twisting of the deep furrows of the stem which produces in some of the 
species an effect resembling that of a mass of intertwined serpents. 
1 Fl. Vit. 42. 
