STRYCHNOS. 



1-2 inches in diameter. Stem as much as 80-120 feet long, without 

 branches, only breaking into ramifications at the upper end. Leaves 

 3-nerved, elliptical or oblong, acuminate, smooth. Hooks solitary, 

 opposite the leaves, thickest at the points. Cymes axillary, lax. Corolla 

 J of an inch long, funnel-shaped, greenish-white, smelling sweet like 

 Jasmine. Fruits the size of a middling apple, each placed upon a short 

 thick, flexuose peduncle, which is thickest at the point; globose, 

 smooth, shining, at first brownish yellow, afterwards bright pink. 

 From the bark of the root there is prepared in Java, one of the most 

 dangerous of known poisons, acting like nux vomica, only in. a more 

 intense and violent manner. It is called Tjettek and Upas Radja. 



1120. S. ligustrina Blume Rumphia i. 68. S. colubrina 

 of many authors. Lignum colubrinum Caju Ular Humph. 

 ii. 121. t. 38. Malayan Archipelago, where it is called " Caju- 

 Ular, Caju-Nassi, and Caju-Bidara-pait or Caju-Bidara-laut. 



A tree with the appearance of an Orange tree ; the trunk 12-15 feet 

 high, and 6 inches or more in diameter. Branches without cirrhi, 

 sometimes spiny at the points. Leaves ovate or elliptical, obtuse, 

 very seldom acute, narrowed to the base, 3-nerved, smooth. Flowers 

 greenish white in small terminal cymes. Corolla downy outside, rather 

 more than ^ an inch long. Berries about the size of a green gage 

 plum, globose, yellowish green, 2-8-seeded. This yields the real 

 ancient Lignum colubrinum of Timor, once held in the highest estima- 

 tion as a remedy for paralysis of the lower extremities, and old cachec- 

 tid disorders ; but now omitted from modern practice. M. Waitz, a 

 Dutch practitioner in Java, is stated by Blume to report most favour- 

 ably of its effects, as an anthelmintic, in cases of paralysis of the 

 lower extremities, and in Blennorhcea faucium et laryngis, diseases to 

 which Europeans are very subject in Java. 



1121. S. pseudoquina Attg. de. St. Hil.pl. us. bras. p. 1. 1. 1. 

 Wooded pasturages in all the eastern part of the province of 

 Minas Geraes, in the Diamond and Minas Novas districts, the 

 forests of Goyaz and elsewhere in Brazil. (Quina do campo.) 



A scrubby tree about 12 feet high, with unarmed branches and a 

 corky bark. Leaves short-stalked, ovate, quintuplenerved, villous 

 beneath, callous at the edge, smooth or nearly so above. Racemes 

 axillary, erect ; peduncles villous. Flowers greenish-white, sweet- 

 scented like a lilac, downy externally. Corolla hypocrateriform. 

 Fruit roundish, 7 or 8 lines in diameter, smooth, yellow, shining, con- 

 taining about 4 seeds plunged in a sweetish pulp. Considered by 

 Aug. de St. Hilaire to be the best febrifuge in Brazil ; with the excep- 

 tion of the fruit, which is eaten by children without danger, all the 

 parts, especially the bark, are extremely bitter and rather astringent. 

 It is universally employed instead of Cinchona, and is asserted to be 

 fully equal to Peruvian Bark, in the cure of the intermittents of Brazil. 

 Vauquelin analysed the bark and could find in it neither brucine, nor 

 strychnine, nor quinine. 



OPHIOXYLON. 



Calyx 5-cleft, permanent. Corolla funnel-shaped ; tube long, 

 thickest in the middle ; limb spreading, 5-cleft, oblique. An- 

 thers subsessile, inserted into the middle of the tube. Ovary 

 531 M M 2 



