238 CROTON ELUTERIA 



5, fringed ; stamens about 15, inserted on the receptacle. 

 Female flowers few at the base of the racemes : calyx deeply 

 o -partite, the divisions lanceolate, acute ; petals 5, fringed, shorter 

 than the calyx ; ovary rounded, covered externally with scales, 

 3-celled, with one suspended ovule in each cell; styles 3, thick, 

 cylindrical, each three times dichotomous. Capsule ovoid, ths of 

 an inch long, silvery-grey with stellate scales, 3-celled ; pericarp 

 thin, dehiscing septicidally into 3 valves, which afterwards separate 

 from the axis and split loculicidally. Seeds solitary in each cell, 

 smooth, shining, orange-brown, with the caruncle paldr; rounded 

 on the back, flat on the sides, and strongly ridged by the ventral 

 raphe ; embryo straight in axis of endosperm. 



Habitat. The Sweet Bark grows in all the islands of the 

 Bahamas group, chiefly on low hills, and in Cuba. The British 

 Museum contains also a specimen collected by Michaux in " the 

 southern parts of N. America;" but the species is not included in 

 Chapman's Flora of these States. The shrub is said to have been 

 introduced into England by P. Miller in the last century, but it is 

 not now, we believe, in cultivation. The flowers are described 

 as deliciously sweet-scented, and appear in March and April. 



Daniell in Pharm. Journ., ser. 2, iv (1862), p. 145 ; Miill., Arg., 

 1. c., p. 516; Grisebach, Fl. W. Ind. (1864), p. 39* 



Official Part and Names. CASCAEILLJE COETEX. The bark 

 (B. P.) The bark (Cascarilla! Cortex) (I. P.) CASCAEILLA. The 

 bark (U. S. P.) 



Commerce. Cascarilla bark is imported from Nassau, the 

 principal town in New Providence, one of the Bahama Islands. 



General Characters and Composition. Cascarilla bark usually 

 occurs in quills, which vary in length from one, to two, three, or 

 more inches, and in diameter from the size of a common goose- 



* Grisebach here recombines this shrub with C. Sloanei, J. J. Benn. (C. 

 Eluteria, Swartz, C. gldbellus, Miill. Arg.), a native of Jamaica, figured very 

 badly in Woodville, t. 223, fig. 1, and beautifully in Hayne, xiv, t. 1, Daniell, 

 2nd plate, and B. & S., t. 28, b. But the species seem so thoroughly distinct, 

 and were so clearly distinguished by Bennett, that this retrograde step is 

 little likely to be followed. 



