HYME1UEA. 



capable of being divided into 2 ; the 2 exterior thickish, coloured with 

 purple, the others partially so, ovate, obtuse. Petals 5, white, ovate, 

 thin, with pellucid dots. Stamens 10, distinct, filiform, subulate, nearly 

 li inch long, white ; anthers oblong. Ovary stipitate, oval, compressed ; 

 style filiform, curved j stigma simple. Legume woody, ovate-oblong, 

 1-celled, containing faecula, about 3-seeded; valves of a chocolate- 

 colour, hard, convex and rough. The meally substance in which the 

 seeds are embedded is sweet and pleasant, but apt to purge when 

 recently gathered ; it loses this property as it becomes old. A decoc- 

 tion of the pulp, allowed to ferment, forms an intoxicating drink 

 resembling beer. A fine transparent resin of a yellowish or red colour 

 exudes between the principal roots. It is the Gum Animi of the shops. 

 It burns readily, emitting a fragrant smell, and has been employed by 

 way of fumigation in attacks of spasmodic asthma, and other embarrass- 

 ments of respiration. In solution, it is given internally in doses of a 

 tea-spoonful, as a substitute for Gum Guaiacum, for rheumatic and 

 pseudo-siphilitic complaints, and employed externally as an embrocation. 

 The resin, called Jatahy, Jatchy, or Copal, and in Minas Geraes Jatoba, 

 is used, not only for various kinds of varnish, but also against tedious 

 coughs, weakness of the lungs, spitting of blood, and incipient phthisis 

 pulmonalis. The curadores have a method of mixing it with sugar and 

 rum, so as to make a very agreeable emulsion, or syrup. Martins. 

 A decoction of the inner bark is said to act as a vermifuge. Macfadyen. 



ALOEXYLON. 



Sepals 4, acute, deciduous, the lower falcate, incurved, twice 

 as long as the others. Petals 5, unequal, longer than the calyx. 

 Stamens 10, distinct. Ovary compressed, curved. Style fili- 

 form. Legume woody, smooth, falcate, 1 -seeded. Seed ob- 

 long, curved, arillate. Lour. 



554-. A. Agallochum Lour. cock. i. 267. DC. prodr. ii. 518. 

 Highest mountains of Cochin-china, near the great river 

 Laoum, which flows between that kingdom and Laos. 



A large tree. Bark tough, fibrous, brown, smooth. Leaves lanceo- 

 late, 8 inches long, entire, flat, smooth, somewhat coriaceous, alternate, 

 stalked. Flower terminal j peduncles many-flowered. Lour. This 

 tree produces one of the two sorts of Calambac, Eagle-wood, or Lign- 

 aloes, a fragrant substance, which Loureiro states consists of a concre- 

 tion of the oily particles into a resin in the centre of the trunk ; it is 

 brought on by some disease, and the tree in time dies of it. The 

 aromatic fragments are taken out of the trunk. Of all perfumes the 

 most grateful to Oriental nations ; " stimulant, corroborant, cephalic, 

 cardiac." Its scent is used against vertigo and paralysis. Powder 

 prevents vomiting and stops diarrhoea by its tonic, but astringent pro- 

 perties. Lour. 



According to Dr. Royle Eagle-wood is a corruption of the Malayan 

 agila y which in Sanscrit is aggura and in Hindu aggur, the name of the 

 substance. Aloe-wood is supposed by Sprengel to have gained its 

 name from allowat or allieh Arabic names of the plant, converted into 

 Aloe-wood has nothing to do with aloes. 



267 



