AYDENDRON. 



AYDENDRON. 



Flowers hermaphrodite, panicled. Calyx funnel-shaped, 

 6-cleft ; segments of the limb unequal deciduous. Fertile sta- 

 mens 9, in 3 rows ; filaments thick, short, hairy ; anthers 6-celled, 

 the outer broader and very short, with pores below their apex 

 and directed inwards, the interior smaller facing outwards, with 

 their pores more at the side. Glands in pairs, sessile, com- 

 pressed. Sterile stamens in a fourth row, compressed, subulate, 

 obtuse, sessile, scale-like. Ovary tapered into a short style ; 

 stigma truncated narrow. Fruit at first covered over by the 

 calyx ; eventually only surrounded by it at the base in the form 

 of a cup, acorn-like. Panicles before expansion covered by 

 deciduous scale-like bracts. 



689. A. Cujumary Nees Laur. 247. Ocotea Cujumary Mar- 

 tius in Buchn. report, a. 1830. xxxv. 178. Firms. Bull. 1831. 

 Jan. p. 63. Woods of Brazil especially in the province of Rio 

 Negro. 



Leaves oblong, acuminate, shining on the upper side, finely downy 

 on the under side. Panicles of fruit very stiff. Cups warted, trun- 

 cated, with 2 furrows at the edge. Seeds aromatic. Their oily 

 cotyledons are employed in powder mixed with wine or water, in cases 

 of indigestion. 



690. A. Laurel Nees Laurin. 249. Ocotea Pichurim Humb. 

 Bonpl. and Kunth. n. g. and sp. pi. ii. 166. Marshy grounds 

 near Cano de Berita by Calobozo in the province of Venezuela, 

 where it is called " Laurel." 



Leaves oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, taper-pointed, with very fine 

 down underneath. Racemes of fruit axillary, twice as short as 

 the leaves. Cups truncated, with a simple sharp margin. Fruit about 

 the size of an olive, seated in the cup. Seeds similar in quantity to 

 those of the last species. Humboldt inquires whether this may not 

 be the plant which produces the Pichurim or Puchury Beans, once 

 celebrated for their febrifugal power; and it appears that both the 

 species here mentioned possess similar properties. But Frederick 

 Nees v. Esenbeck asserts positively, from an inspection of a specimen 

 of Ocotea Pichurim sent him by Kunth, that it is by no means the 

 origin of these Beans (Handb. ii. 436.), which he suspects are rather 

 the produce of some Lauraceous plant of the genus Sassafras. His 

 brother refers them to Nectandra Puchury, which see. These Beans were 

 imported from Brazil into Stockholm in the middle of the last cen- 

 tury, and were found a valuable tonic and astringent medicine ; during 

 the continental war they were used as a bad substitute for nutmegs. 

 They are now obsolete. 

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