6 



STYRACINE^E. I. STYBAX. HALESIACE^E. I. HALESIA. 



Koom-jameva is the Bengaleese name of the tree. Leaves 3 

 inches long. Corolla 6 -cleft. Drupe 1-4-seeded. 



Serrulated-leaved storax. Shrub. 



27 S. BENZOIN (Dryand. in trans, roy. soc. 77. p. 307. t. 12. 

 Woodv. med. hot. p. 200. t. 72.) leaves ovate-oblong, acumi- 

 nated, glabrous above, but clothed with leprous tomentum be- 

 neath, as well as the calyxes ; racemes compound almost the 

 length of the leaves; flowers with 7-9-10-stamens. f? . S. 

 Native of Sumatra and Java. Church. & Stev. med. hot. 3. 

 1. 112. Blum, bijdr. p. 671. Plench, icon. t. 342. Benjui, Garc. in 

 Clus. exot. p. 155. A'rbor. Benzoini, Grim, in ephem. acad. nat. 

 cur. dec. 2. ann. 1. p. 370. f. 31. Benzoin, Radermacher, in act. 

 Soc. batav. 3. p. 44. Laurus Benzoin Houtt. in act. harlem. vol. 

 21. p. 265. t. 7. Benjamin or Benzoin, Marsden, Sumatra, p. 123. 

 Luban is the Bengalese name of the resin. Leaves a hand long. 

 Corolla white, downy outside ; segments linear. Though Gar- 

 cias, Grim and Sylvias were acquainted with the real tree from 

 which Benzoin is collected, their descriptions are so imperfect 

 that succeeding botanists have fallen into many errors concern- 

 ing it ; and it is remarkable that, although this drug was always 

 imported from the East Indies, most of the later writers on the 

 Materia Medica have conceived it to be collected from a species 

 of Laurus, native of Virginia, to which, from this erroneous 

 supposition, they have given the trivial name Benzoin. Linnaeus 

 Mant. p. 297., seems to think that the drug is furnished by the 

 Crbton Bentzbe, and afterwards, in the Supplementum Plantarum, 

 p. 434, he describes the same plant again under the name of 

 Terminalia Benzoin. Jacquin, who was informed that this shrub 

 was called by the French, Bienjoint, may have occasioned the 

 mistake, from the similar sound of the word. Mr. Dryander, 

 however, in the year 1787, clearly proved it to be a species of 

 Styrax. The tree is deemed in Sumatra to be of sufficient age 

 in 6 years, or when the trunk is about 7 or 8 inches in dia- 

 meter, to afford the Benzoin. The bark is then cut through 

 longitudinally or somewhat obliquely, at the origin of the prin- 

 cipal lower branches, from which the drug exudes in a liquid 

 state, and by exposure to the sun and air soon concretes, when it 

 is scraped off. The trees are not found to sustain the effects 

 of these annual incisions longer than 10 or 12 years. The 

 quantity each tree yields never exceeds 3 pounds. The Benzoin 

 which issues first from the wounded bark is the purest, being soft, 

 extremely fragrant, and very white ; that which is less esteemed 

 is of a brownish colour, very hard, and mixed with various impu- 

 rities. In Arabia, Persia, and other parts of the East, the coarser 

 sort is consumed in fumigating and perfuming temples, and 

 in destroying insects. The Benzoin which we find here in the 

 shops is in large brittle masses, composed partly of white, partly 

 of yellowish or light brown ; that which is clearest and contains 

 the most white matter, is accounted the best. This resin has 

 very little taste, impressing on the palate only a slight sweet- 

 ness ; its smell, especially when rubbed or heated, is extremely 

 fragrant and agreeable. It totally dissolves in rectified spirit, 

 the impurities excepted, into a deep yellow-red liquor, and in 

 this state discovers a degree of warmth and pungency as well as 

 sweetness. It imparts, by digestion, to water also, a consider- 

 able share of its fragrance, and a slight pungency ; the filtered 

 liquor, gently exhaled, leaves not a resinous or mucilaginous 

 extract, but a crystalline matter, seemingly of a saline nature, 

 amounting to one-tenth of an eighth of the weight of Benzoin. 

 Exposed to the fire in proper vessels, it yields a quantity of 

 white saline concrete, called Flores Benzoes, of an acidulous taste, 

 and grateful odour, soluble in rectified spirit, and in water by 

 the assistance of heat. 



As the trees which afford Storax and Benzoin, are species of 

 the same genus, their products are very similar in their ex- 

 ternal appearance, and not widely different in their sensible 



qualities ; it is therefore reasonable to suppose that they are ana- 

 logous in their medicinal effects. Benzoin, however, though 

 rarely employed in a simple state, has been frequently pre- 

 scribed as a pectoral, and is recommended for inveterate 

 coughs, asthmas, obstructions of the lungs, and all phthisical 

 complaints, unattended by much fever ; it has also been used 

 as a cosmetic, and in the way of fumigation for the resolution 

 of indolent tumours. Dr. Cullen classes benzoin with the sti- 

 mulants, and says that thejiores benzoes, which is the only pre- 

 paration employed, are manifestly a saline substance, of an acid 

 kind, of considerable acrimony and stimulant power ; and 

 although it has been recommended as a pectoral, he found it 

 heating and hurtful in asthmatic cases in a dose of half a drachm. 

 In the Pharmacopoeias the flowers are directed in the tinctura 

 opii camphorala, and it is ordered in substance in the tinctura 

 benzoes composita. 



Benzoin Storax. Tree. 



Cult. The hardy species of Storax are proper plants for 

 shrubberies, being very handsome when in flower. A light soil 

 suits them best. The best way of increasing them is by layers 

 put down in the autumn or spring. The stove and greenhouse 

 species will grow freely in a mixture of loam, peat, and sand ; 

 and will be easily propagated by cuttings planted in sand, under 

 a hand-glass ; those of the tropical species in heat. 



ORDER CLXII. HALESIA'CEjE (this order only contains 

 the genus Halenia, or Snow-drop trees). D. Don, in edinb. 

 phil. journ. dec. 1828. Symplocineee, part, of authors. Guaia- 

 canae, part. Juss. 156. 



Calyx small, 4-toothed. Corolla monopetalous, ventricosely 

 campanulate, with a 4-lobed, erect border. Stamens 12-16 ; 

 filaments combined into a tube at the base, and adnate to the 

 corolla; anthers oblong, erect, 2-celled, dehiscing lengthwise. 

 Ovarium inferior. Style 1 ; stigma simple. Drupe dry, corticate, 

 oblong, with 2-4-winged angles, terminated by the permanent 

 style : containing a 2-4-celled putamen, which is acute at both 

 ends ; cells 1 -seeded ; seeds attached to the bottom of the cells ; 

 testa of seeds simple, very thin. Embryo length of albumen, 

 with linear-oblong cotyledons ; and a long, linear, compressed 

 inferior radicle. Albumen fleshy. Trees with alternate, serrated 

 leaves ; and lateral fascicles of pedicellate, drooping, white 

 flowers. This order comes nearest to Symplocinece, from which 

 it differs in the inferior ovarium, in the fruit being a hard, dry, 

 winged nut, and in the corolla being more decidedly monopetalous. 



I. HALE'SIA (so named by Ellis in honour of the learned 

 and venerable Stephen Hales, D.D. F.R.S., author of Veget- 

 able Staticks in 1722). Ellis in Lin. gen. no. 596. Gaertn. 

 fruct. 1. p. 160. t. 32. Juss. gen. 156. 



LIN. SYST. Dodecdndria, Monogynia. Character the same 

 as the order. 



1 H. TETRA'PTERA (Lin. spec. 636. Ellis in phil. trans. 

 vol. 51. p. 931. t. 22. f. A.) leaves ovate-lanceolate, acuminated, 

 sharply serrated ; petioles glandular ; fruit with 4 wings. 1? . H. 

 Native of South Carolina, along the banks of rivers. Curt. hot. 

 mag. 910. Lodd. hot. cab. 1173. Cav. diss. 6. p. 338. t. 186. 

 Lam. ill. 404. Leaves acuminated, with the middle depressed. 

 Flowers pure white, 9-10 in a fascicle, drooping, resembling 

 those of the snow-drop. The wood is hard and veined ; the 

 bark is of a darkish colour, with many irregular fissures. 



Four-winged-fruited Halesia, or Common Snow-drop Tree. 

 Fl. April, May. Clt. 1756. Tree 15 to 20 feet. 



2 H. PARVIFLOKA (Michx. fl. amer. bor. 2. p. 40.) leaves 



