432 LOGANIACE^. 



from the descriptions given by Loureiro ^ and Blanco.^ The fruit is 

 spherical, or sometimes ovoid, 4| inches in diameter by 6f long, as 

 shown by Ray and Petiver's figure. It has a smooth brittle shell en- 

 closing seeds to the number of about 24. G. Bennett,^ who saw the 

 fruits at Manila sold in the bazaar, says they contain from 1 to 12 

 seeds, imbedded in a glutinous blackish pulp.^ According to Jagor " 

 the shrub is abundant near Basey, in the south-western part of the 

 island of Samar, on the straits of San Juanico ; its seeds are met with 

 as a medicine in many houses in the Philippines. 



History — It is stated by Murray ^ and later writers that this seed 

 was introduced into Europe from the Philippines by the Jesuits, who, 

 on account of its virtues, bestowed upon it the name of Ignatius, the 

 founder of their order. However this may be, the earliest account of 

 the drug appears to be that communicated by Camelli, Jesuit mis- 

 sionary at Manila, to Ray and Petiver, and by them laid before the 

 Royal Society of London in 1699.^ Camelli proclaimed the seed to be 

 the Nux Vomica legitima of the Arabian physician Serapion, who 

 flourished in the 9th century; but in our opinion there is no warrant 

 whatever for supposing it to have been known at so remote a period.^ 

 Camelli states that the seed, which he calls Nux Pepita seu Faha Sancti 

 Ignatii, is much esteemed as a remedy in various disorders, though he 

 was well aware of its poisonous properties when too freely administered. 

 In Germany, St. Ignatius' Bean was made known about the same 

 period by Bohn of Leipzig." 



The drug is found in the Indian bazaars under a name which is 

 evidently corrupted from the Spanish pepita. It is met with in the 

 drugshops of China as Leu-sung-kwo, i.e. Luzon fruit. 



Description — St. Ignatius' Beans are about an inch in length ; 

 their form is ovoid, yet by mutual pressure it is rendered very irre- 

 gular, and they are 3-, 4-, or 5 -sided, bluntly angular, or flattish, with a 

 conspicuous hilum at one end. In the fresh state, they are covered 

 with silvery adpressed hairs : portions of a shaggy brown epidermis 

 are here and there perceptible on those found in commerce, but in 

 the majority the seed shows the dull grey, granular surface of the 

 albumen itself. 



Notwithstanding the different outward appearance, the structure of 

 St. Ignatius' Beans accords with that of nux vomica. The radicle how- 

 ever is longer, thicker, and frequently somewhat bent, and the cotyle- 

 dons are more pointed. The horny brownish albumen is translucent, 



^ Flora Cochinchinensis, ed. Willd. i. ^ Appm-atus Jifedicaminum,vi. {1192)26. 



(1793) 155. ''Phil. Trans, xxi. (1699) 44. 87; Ray, 



2 Flora de Filipinas, ed. 2. 1845. 61. Hist. Plant, iii. lib. 31. 118. 



^ London Med. and Phys. Joiirn. ^ The Philippines were unknown to the. 



January 1832. Europeans of the Middle Ages. They were 



^ The only specimen of the fruit I have discovered by Magellan in 1521, but their 



seen was in the possession of my late conquest by the Spaniards was not efFec- 



friend Mr. Morson. It measured exactly tually commenced until 1565. Previous 



4 inches in diameter, and when opened to the Sjianish occupation, they were 



(15 January 1872) was found to contain 17 governed by petty chiefs, and were fre- 



mature, well-formed seeds, with remnants quented for the purposes of commerce by 



of dried pulp. — D.H, I have seen another Japanese, Chinese, and Malays, 



one in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. — F. A. F. '•> Maftiny, Encyklopadie der Rohwaaren- 



' JReisen in den Philippinen, Berlin, 1873. kunde, i. (1843) 576. 

 213. 



