MAGNOLIACEJE. 175 



and appears very efficacious in chronic rheumatism.' M. acuminata and 

 auricidafa are known in the same country as Ci/cumber-trecs f and 

 their bark, infused in various alcoholic liquors, is used by the people 

 of the mountain districts in rheumatic affections and intermittiner 

 fevers. The leaves must possess similar properties, but are very 

 little used. The flowers are used to prepare perfumes of but slight 

 stability. Those of M. Yidan are used in China to give an aroma 

 to tea; its buds are pickled in vinegar, and the fruits are also used 

 in infusion, as pectoral and demulcent, in cases of cough and other 

 pulmonary affections, and in catarrhal fever. The alcoholic in- 

 fusion of the green fruits of the Cucumber-tree is also thought to 

 cure rheumatism. Those of M. glauca are as useful as the bark. 

 The seeds of many species, such as M. (jJauca, acuminata, Yulan, are 

 much used as febrifuges. It is said that those of M. f/randijlora are 

 used to treat paralysis of every description, and that those of M. 

 Yulan, prized in China^ for the lemon scent of their fleshy coats, cure 

 chronic rheumatism ; they are also powdered in that country for a 

 sternutatory. The wood of the species of this section is of no great 

 value ; it is usually white, of but little hardness or durability, and 

 too light and spongy. Accordingly, that of M. f/randiftora and 

 auriculata is only used in America for the internal beams of houses. 

 That of M. acuminata is hardly stronger, but has a fine grain, and 

 easily takes a high polish, which brings out its brownish j-ellow 

 colour ; and it is much used in the woodwork of houses. 



In the Magnolias of the section Talauma the aromatic properties 

 are still more marked. Tlie intense scent of their flowers in con- 

 servatories may bring on faintness. It is to those of J/. Flumieri* or 

 Talauma Plumieri^ {Bois Pin, Bois Cachiment of the Creoles), that, ac- 

 cording to L. C. Richard,^ the excellent table liqueurs of Martinique 



' BiGELOW, Med. Bot., ii. t. 27. is cultivated in pots, and forced so as to flower 



2 In the United States the bark of M. grandi- "" winter.— K.?;jipf., Ic. Sel, t. 43. 



flora is often mixed with that of these species in . ^^- fei'^cens L. C. Rich, ex DC, Prodr., 



commerce. It possesses the same properties. '• 82.— ^«o«a dodecapeiala Lamk. 



It has been analysed by Peoctee {Uc. cit.) : it ^'^•' P>-odr., 87; Ft. Lid. Occid., ii. 997.— 



contains an acid which gives a green precipitate T.candea Xaum., ex DrcH., Rep., 177. 



with salts of iron; salts; volatile oil; a green A. Rich., Elem. d'Rist. Sat. Med., ed. 4, 



resin ; and the same crystallizable principle analo- ■^'^^■> "• '^^'*. The leaves and roots are pre- 



■gous to Unodendrhie, as exists in M. glauca scribed as astringent and stomachic, and the leaf 



(Pebeiea, op. cit., 676). ^"'^* "^ antiscorbutic. The Indians make various 



' 3 T4. • 4.1 • I' 7 /TT • T^ 11 domestic utensils of the wood ; and a resin 



^ It 18 their lu-lan, or Txin-y. Its emble- a^.■i■^..MoA f <-i, i .. • i . 



,. , a ' , . /,, ^ ., . extracted trom the plant is supposed to cure 



matical flowers are so much prized that the tree catarrh and leucorrhcca. 



