WILLUGHBEIA, 



ments short, inserted into the tube of the corolla a little above its 

 base. Anthers subsagittate, but not adhering to each other. Ovary 

 ovate, smooth, 1-celled ; ovules many, attached to 2 opposite parie- 

 tal placentae; style short; stigma conical, and closely embraced 

 by the anthers. Berry the size of a large lemon, subovate, covered 

 with a thick, friable, pretty smooth, brownish, yellow rind, 1-celled. 

 Seeds many, in a soft, yellowish pulp, which is intermixed with softer 

 cottony fibres ; the size of a small garden bean. Every part of the 

 plant on being wounded discharges copiously a very pure white viscid 

 juice, which is soon, by exposure to the air, changed into an indifferent 

 kind of caoutchouc. The fruit is eaten by the natives of the places 

 where it grows, and is by them reckoned good. Roxb. 



1124- a. W. pubescens Nees and Martius, is found an excel- 

 lent remedy for bilious complaints in Brazil. 



* * Fruit follicular. 



ALLAMANDA. * 



Calyx deeply 5-cleft, with lanceolate segments. Corolla fun- 

 nel-shaped, very large, rather irregular, with a very long tube 

 and a 5-cleft limb. Stamens inserted into the throat of the 

 corolla ; anthers subsessile, sagittate. Ovary surrounded by a 

 ring ; stigma capitate, contracted in the middle so as to appear 

 double. Capsule orbicular, compressed, coriaceous, prickly with 

 long spines, 2-valved, many-seeded ; valves boat-shaped. Seeds 

 orbicular, with a membranous border, imbricated in 2 rows, at- 

 tached to the margin of the valves. 



1125. A. cathartica Linn. mant. 214. Bot. mag. t. 338. 

 A. grandiflora Lam. encycl. iv. 601. L'Herit. sertum. iv. 8. t. 24. 

 Orelia grandiflora AubL i. 271. t. 106. Cayenne, Guayana, 

 and many parts of Brazil, especially near the coast. 



A climbing milky shrub. Leaves in fours, subsessile, ovate-oblong, 

 shining, obtuse with a point, ferruginous underneath, with white hairs 

 on the veins. Flowers fascicled, axillary, yellow, large and showy, with 

 villous dichotomous rigid peduncles. An infusion of the leaves is 

 considered a valuable cathartic medicine, in moderate doses, especially 

 in the cure of painters' colic. In over doses it is violently emetic and 

 purgative. 



1126. Rauwolfia nitida Willd. The root is a disagreeable 

 bitter, and is employed in the West Indies as a remedy for colic. 



NERIUM. 



Corolla hypocrateriform ; the orifice surmounted by lacerated 

 multifid processes ; segments of the limb contorted. Filaments 

 inserted into the middle of the tube ; anthers sagittate, adher- 

 ing by the middle to the stigma. Ovaries 2 ; style filiform, 

 dilated at the apex ; stigma obtuse. Some teeth at the bottom 

 of the calyx on the outside of the corolla. Follicles cylindrical. 



1127. N. odoratum Lam. enc. iii. 436. R. and S. iv. 410 



N. odorum Willd. i. 1235. Roxb.fl. ind. ii.^ 2. Blume Bjjdr. 



533 M M 3 



