76 



'Note on Platyneraa; by G. N. [?A.] Walker-Arnott, LL.D., Pro- 

 fessor of Botany, Glasgow.' 



Botanical Information : — Cedron, previously published in the 

 ' Port of Spain Gazette.' Dr. Link, a notice of his death, extracted 

 from the ' Literary Gazette.' Linnean Society. 



Notices of Books : — ' Description of the Palmyra Palm of Ceylon ; 

 by William Ferguson. Colombo, 1850.' 



Of the original papers, however valuable for reference and compa- 

 rison of species, I can give no abstract here, seeing that they relate 

 entirely to exotic, and for the most part obscure, portions of the ve- 

 table kingdom. The following particulars of the Cedron are, how- 

 ever, more interesting; but the learned editor should have favoured 

 us with the name of the plant, and of the natural order to which it 

 belongs. These can be no matters of doubt, since it appears that 

 specimens are growing in the Royal Gardens at Kew. 



" During my travels in New Granada," says Mr. Purdie, " I had 

 often heard of the virtues of the Cedron, long before I had the plea- 

 sure of meeting with the tree. It is rare to find a Peon or Ariero 

 without a seed, although they are expensive. I have, myself, paid a 

 dollar a seed at San Pablo, where the tree is indigenous, even within 

 the precincts of the village. Its use is not confined to the cure of 

 serpent-bites alone, but has the reputation of superseding sulphate of 

 quinine in cases of fever, and that in the country of the Cinchona 

 barks. 



" Now about eight years ago, the Government of New Granada 

 sent a commission of several medical men and students, accompanied 

 by Dr. Cespides (Professor of Botany in the University of Bogota), 

 to ascertain what plant produced the Cedron, its locality, and quan- 

 tity procurable. You now see it in all the apothecaries' shops in the 

 different towns of that Republic ; so that now, in the midst of forests 

 of the Peruvian Bark tree, another remedy at least equally specific 

 (and that without any chemical preparation) is in process of super- 

 seding it. During my stay in Bogota, I was informed of the locality 

 of the Cedron (by Dr. Cespides, a gentleman of considerable know- 

 ledge and experience in the plants of New Granada), which I found 

 would be on my route from the province of Antioguia, by way of the 

 Rio Magdalena. Thus, Providence has decreed, that out of the allu- 

 vial and pestilential plains of this magnificent river, a remedy should 

 come for the cure of its own maladies. On my reaching the village 

 of Nari, in the great valley of the Magdalena, in August, 1846, I found 

 that the surrounding woods contained the celebrated Cedron, as also 



