STY 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



STY 



637 



Many different woods are sent from the E. Indies under the 

 name of Lignum Colubrinum. Native of the East Indies. 



3. Stychnos Potatorum ; Clearing Nut. Leaves opposite, 

 ovate, acute, quintuple-nerved, veined ; cymes axillary. This 

 is a tree, with opposite branches; flowers small, nodding; 

 berry the size of a cherry, dark red, one-seeded. The flowers 

 are very white, pleasant, and aromatic; and the fruit first 

 tastes sweet, but afterwards bitter and astringent. This grows 

 to be a larger tree than the first species, and is much scarcer, 

 being only found among mountains, and in woods of great ex- 

 tent. It flowers during the hot season. The wood is hard 

 and durable, and used for various economical purposes. The 

 pulp of the fruit when ripe is eaten by the natives, but the 

 taste is rather disagreeable. The ripe seeds are dried and 

 sold in every market to clear muddy water, whence it obtain- 

 ed the English name of Clearing Nut. The natives of Coro- 

 mandel never drink clear well water, if they can get pond or 

 river water, which is always more or less impure: one of 

 the seeds is rubbed very hard for a minute or two round the 

 inside of the vessels containing the water. This vessel is 

 generally an unglazed earthen one, and the water is left to 

 settle : in a very short time the impurities fall to the bottom, 

 leaving the water perfectly clear and wholesome. These 

 nuts are constantly carried about by the more provident part 

 of our officers and soldiers in time of war, to enable them to 

 purify their water ; as they are more easily procured than 

 alum, and are more wholesome. 



Stuartia; a genus of the class Monadelphia, order Poly- 

 andria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth one- 

 leafed, half five-cleft, spreading; segments ovate, concave, 

 permanent. Corolla: petals five, obovate, concave, equal, 

 spreading, large. Stamina : filamenta numerous, filiform, 

 united into a cylinder below., shorter than the corolla, con- 

 necting the petals at the base; antheree roundish, incumbent. 

 Pistil: germen roundish, hirsute; styles five, simple, filiform, 

 length of the stamina; stigma five-cleft. Pericarp: pome 

 juiceless, five-lobed, five-celled, soluble into five closed parts. 

 Seeds: solitary, ovate, compressed. ESSENTIAL CHARACEER. 

 Calix: in five deep segments. Styles: simple, with a five- 

 cleft stigma. Pome: juiceless, five-lobed, one-seeded, open- 

 ing five ways. The species are, 



1. Stuartia Malachodendron. Flowers lateral, subbinate; 

 calicos ovate, obtuse ; styles conjoined. This shrub rises 

 with strong ligneous stalks to the height of five or twelve feet, 

 sending out branches on every side; leaves alternate, on short 

 stalks, elliptic-oblong, two to four inches long, serrated, 

 smooth, and of a fine green above, paler and downy beneath. 

 The flowers are produced from the wings of the stalk : they 

 are white, with one of the segments of a yellowish tinge. It 

 flowers in the latter end of May. Native of Virginia and 

 Carolina. Sow the seeds, which frequently fail when brought 

 to England, either from not being properly impregnated, or 

 not fully ripened. When the plants come up, they must not 

 be much exposed to the sunbeams, nor to the open air, for 

 they are very difficult to preserve while young. The seeds 

 ought therefore to be sown under glasses;' and the surface of 

 the ground, between the plants, should be covered with moss, 

 to keep it moist; and the glasses should be constantly shaded 

 when the sun is bright. With this management the plants 

 will grow, but not fast. This is a hardy plant, except in the 

 early state, when it needs shelter and protection from cold 

 winters, until it becomes inured to the open air, when it may 

 stand constantly in the open shrubby quarters. 



2. Stuartia Pentagyaa. Flowers solitary, axillary; calices 

 caligulate and lanceolate; styles distinct. This attains the 

 height of six feet. Native of Carolina and Georgia. 



Styrax; a genus of the class Decandria, order Monogynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth one-leafed, 

 cylindric, erect, short, live-toothed. Corolla . one-petalled, 

 funnel-form; tube short, cylindric, length of theoalix; border 

 five-parted, large, spreading; segments lanceolate, obtuse. 

 Stamina: filamenta ten, ereet, in a ring, scarcely united at 

 the base, awl-shaped, inserted into the corolla; antheree 

 oblong, straight. Pistil: germen superior, three-celled, 

 many-seeded ; style simple, length of the stamina ; stigma 

 truncate. Pericarp : drupe roundish, one-cc-llert. Seeds : 

 nuts one or two, roundish, acuminate, convex on one side, 

 flat on the other. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Ca/i;r: of one 

 leaf, inferior. Cnrolla: funnel-form, in five equal segments. 

 Drupe: two-seeded. The species are, 



1. Styrax Officinale ; Officinal Slorax. Leaves ovate, viU 

 lose beneath ; racemes simple, shorter than the leaf. Trunk 

 twelve or fourteen feet high, covered with a smooth grayisl 

 bark, and sending out many slender branches on every side. 

 The flowers come out from the side of the branches, upon 

 peduncles sustaining five or six flowers in a bunch ; they are 

 white, and appear in June. The fruit is a juiceless drupe, of 

 an ovate-globular form. This shrub is chiefly remarkable 

 for producing the valuable and highly fragrant gum called 

 Storax. Although it is indigenous to many parts of the south 

 of Europe, yet the resinous drug which it produces is only to 

 be obtained in perfection from Asiatic Turkey. It issues in 

 a liquid state, from incisions made in the bark of the trunk 

 or branches ; and as it was formerly the custom to collect 

 this gum-resin in reeds, it obtained the name of Styrax Cala- 

 mita. The only kinds now to be found in the shops, are the 

 Pure and Common Storax: the former is usually in irregular 

 compact masses, free from impurities, of a yellowish or red- 

 dish-brown appearance, and interspersed with whitish tears, 

 somewhat like Gum Ammoniac or Benzoin ; which upon the 

 application of heat melts readily. This has been called 

 Storax-in-the-lump, or Red Storax ; and the separate tears, 

 Storax-in-the-tear. The Common Storax is in large masses, 

 very light, and bears no resemblance whatever to that just 

 described : it seems almost wholly composed of dirty saw- 

 dust, merely caked together by the resinous matter ; and 

 though much less esteemed than the purer kind, yet we are 

 told, that when it is freed from the woody part, it possesses 

 more fragrance, and is superior to the other. Rectified spirit, 

 the common menstruum of resins, readily dissolves the Storax, 

 which may be inspissated to a solid consistence. If infused 

 in water, it imparts to the menstruum a yellow gold colour, 

 some portion of its smell, and a slight balsamic taste. It im- 

 pregnate* water considerably in distillation, and strongly 

 diffuses its fragrance when heated, though it scarcely yields 

 any essential oil. The spirituous solution, gently distilled off 

 from the filtered reddish liquor, brings over with it very little 

 of the fragrance, and the resin which remains is more fragrant 

 than the finest Storax-in-the-tear. The pure resin distilled 

 without addition, yields, along with an empyreutnatic oil, a 

 portion of saline matter, similur to the flowers of Benzoin, 

 and sometimes a substance of the same nature may be ex- 

 tracted by boiling it in water. With some of the ancients, 

 this drug WHS a familiar remedy as a resolvent, and particu- 

 larly in catanhal complaints, coughs, asthmas, and menstrual 

 obstructions. From its affinity to the Balsams, it was also 

 prescribed in ulcerations of the lungs, and other stages of 

 pulmonary consumption; and is by some still prescribed in 

 disorders of the breast. Propagation. This plant may be 

 propagated by sowing the seeds in pots filled will) fresh light 

 earth, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed. This should be 

 done as soon alter the seeds are procured as possible, for if 



