CORDIACE^. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 272. 



CORDIA. 



Calyx tubular, 4-5-toothed. Corolla funnel-shaped, or cam- 

 panulate, with a flat 5- or 7-cleft, limb, and a hairy or naked 

 throat. Stamens 5, short, inserted in the throat of the corolla. 

 Style protruding, bifid, with 4? stigmas. Ovary 3-4-celled. 

 Drupe containing 1 stone, with 1-3 cells, 2 of which are usually 

 abortive. 



982. C. latifolia Roxb. fl. ind. i. 588. Hindostan. 

 Branches numerous, spreading, and drooping ; young shoots angular 



and smooth; the general height of trees 10 or 12 years old about 

 20 feet. Leaves alternate, petioled, round, cordate, and ovate, often 

 slightly repand, 3-nerved, of a hard texture, smooth above, scabrous 

 and pale underneath, from 3 to 7, or even 8 inches long, and rather 

 less in breadth. Petioles nearly round, and smooth. Panicles short, 

 terminal and lateral, roundish, the branches alternate, diverging, and 

 once or more frequently dichotomous. Flowers numerous, small, 

 white. Bracts minute, villous. Calyx villous, campanulate, leathery ; 

 mouth unequally toothed. Corolla short, campanulate; segments 5, 

 linear-oblong. Filaments as long as the segments of the corolla, and 

 inserted immediately under their fissures. Anthers incumbent. Ovary 

 ovate, 4-celled, with 1 ovule in each attached to the upper end of the 

 axis. Style short. Stigma 4-cleft; segments long, rugose and re- 

 curved. Drupe oblate- spheroidal, about 1 inch or 1J inch in diameter, 

 smooth, when ripe straw-coloured, covered with a whitish bloom. 

 Pulp in large quantity, soft, clear, and very clammy. Nut nearly 

 circular, laterally-compressed, rugose on the outside, with a cavity at 

 each end, the lower one deeper than the other, exceedingly hard, 

 4-celled, though rarely with all the cells fertile. Seed solitary, ovate- 

 oblong. Integument single, white, soft and oily. Plumule very small. 

 Radicle conical, superior. Roxb. Under the name Sebesten Plums, 

 Sebestans, or Sepistans, two sorts of Indian fruit have been employed 

 as pectoral medicines, for which their mucilaginous qualities, combined 

 with some astringency, have recommended them. They are believed 

 to have been the Persea of Dioscorides. According to Mr. Colebrooke 

 this is a larger and more mucilaginous sort than that described by 

 European writers on Materia Medica, which is the produce of the 

 following species. 



By an unfortunate error Linnaeus has applied the name of Sebesten 

 to an American species of this genus, not known in medicine. 



983. C. Myxa Linn. sp. pi 273. Wittd. i. 1072. Roxb. 

 fl. ind. i. 590 Sebestena officinalis Gartn. fruct. i. 363. 



481 i i 



