EXCJECARIA. 



from 2 to 4, or even 6, rather remote, 1-flowered scales, the remaining 

 part imbricated with numerous, small, neuter scales. Sepals 3, cordate, 

 pointed. Ovary 3-lobed. Styles 3, recurved ; stigmas simple. Capsule 

 tricoccous. Trunk abounding in a most dangerous virulent acrid 

 milk. Wood-cutters upon whom this juice has flown after a stroke of 

 their axe reported to Roxburgh that it produced inflammation and 

 ulceration. Rumph. states that the Dutch sailors who were sent ashore 

 in Amboyna to cut timber, sometimes became furiously mad from the 

 pain produced by the juice that fell on their eyes, and that some of them 

 altogether lost their sight. Agallochum or Aloeswood is not produced 

 by this tree, but by Aquilaria Agallochum. 



COMMIA. 



Flowers dioecious. $ . Amentaceous. Bracts staminiferous. 

 Stamens several, united into a column. $ . Racemiferous- 

 Calyx 3-parted. Styles 3. Capsule 3-lobed. 



392. C. cochinchinensis Lour. cochincJi. 742. Cochin- 

 china. 



A small tree with resinous juice. Leaves alternate, entire, smooth. 

 Male flowers amentaceous; catkins consisting of imbricated 1-flowered 

 scales, axillary, short. Female racemes somewhat terminal, small, 

 numerous. This tree yields a white tenacious gum of an emetic, pur- 

 gative, deobstruent nature. If prudently administered it is useful in 

 obstinate dropsy and obstructions. Lour, 



EUPHORBIA. 



Flowers collected in monoecious heads, surrounded by an 

 involucrum, consisting of 1 leaf with 5 divisions, which have 

 externally 5 glands alternating with them. $ . Naked, monan- 

 drous, articulated with their pedicel, surrounding the female, 

 which is in the centre. ? . Naked, solitary. Ovarium stalked. 

 Stigmas 3, forked. Fruit hanging out of the involucrum, con- 

 sisting of 3 cells, bursting at the back with elasticity, and each 

 containing 1 suspended seed. 



1. SUCCULENT LEAFLESS, OR NEARLY LEAFLESS, SPECIES. 



393. E. Tirucalli Linn. sp. pi. 649. Roxb. fl. ind. ii. 470. 

 Rheede ii. t. 44. Rumph. vii. t. 29 A native of various parts 

 of India. 



Branches erect, naked, round, succulent, polished, abounding in 

 milky juice. Leaves small, linear, fleshy, sessile, at the ends of the 

 twigs. Flowers crowded, subsessile, terminal and axillary. Lobes of 

 the involucre 5, roundish, smooth, peltate ; tube woolly on the inside. 

 Capsule villous. Milk introduced into the eye produces severe in- 

 flammation and even blindness. According to Sonnerat the milk 

 mixed with flour is taken in India in doses of a drachm a day as a 

 remedy for syphilis, and successfully in cases that are not inveterate. 

 191 



