186 MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



the first with two-paired leaflets, and the second with many paired 

 leaflets ; but the leaves, according to the plant we have figured, 

 commonly consist of three, and sometimes four pair of pinnae, so 

 that this specific description is by no means distinctly characteristic. 

 In a medical sense, the sanctum has been generally considered sy- 

 nonymously with the officinale, and from the investigation we have 

 given this subject, we believe it founded in botanical truth. 



This tree is a native of the West India Islands, and the warmer 

 parts of America, and appears from the MS. of Sir Hans Sloane, in 

 the British Museum, to have been first cultivated in this country 

 by the Duchess of Beaufort in l699 The wood, gum, bark, fruit, 

 and even the flowers of this tree, have been found to possess medi- 

 cinal qualities. The wood is brought here principally from Ja- 

 maica, in large pieces of four or five cwt. each, and, from its hard- 

 ness and beauty, is in great demand for various articles of turnery 

 ware, It is extremely compact, and so heavy as to sink in water : 

 the outer part is of a pale yellowish colour, the heart is of a dark 

 blackish brown, with a greater or less admixture of green. It 

 scarcely discovers any smell, unless heated, or while rasping, in 

 which circumstances it yields a light aromatic one ; chewed, it im- 

 presses a slight acrimony, biting the palate and fauces. Its pun- 

 gency resides in a resinous matter, which is totally extracted by diges- 

 tion in rectified spirit, and partially by boiling water. The quantity 

 of solid extract, obtained by rectified spirit, amounts to about one- 

 fourth of the weight of the wood ; with water, scarcely one-sixth is 

 obtained. The gum, or rather gummy resin, is obtained by wound- 

 ing the bark in different parts of the body of the tree, or by what 

 has been called jagging. It exudes copiously from the wounds, 

 though gradually ; and when a quantity is found accumulated upon 

 the several wounded trees, hardened by exposure to the sun, it is ga- 

 thered and packed in small kegs for exportation. This resin is of a 

 friable texture, of a deep greenish colour, and sometimes of a red- 

 dish hue; it has a pungent acrid taste, but little or no smell, unless 

 heated. It contains more resin than the watery extract made from 

 the wood ; and more gummy matter than the spirituous extract. 

 The guaiacum tree also yields a spontaneous exudation from the 

 bark, which is called the native gum, and is brought to us in small 

 irregular pieces, of a bright semipellucid appearance, and differs 

 from the former in being much purer. .The bark contains less re- 



