14 ANAMIRTA PANICULATA 



above into short thick branches, erect, flask-shaped, gibbous below, 

 smooth, 1 -celled; stigmas terminal, triangular, reflexed. Fruit of 

 15, usually 2, rounded-ovoid drupes about \ inch long, with 

 the remains of the stigma on the inner side, each obliquely 

 supported on a short strong branch springing from the summit of 

 the gynophore, which has become a hard woody stalk \ inch 

 long; pulp very scanty, endocarp thin, brittle, indehiscent, pene- 

 trating deeply on the ventral side, so as to form a hollow space in 

 the fruit, and reflexed so as to divide this into two cavities. 

 Seed reniform on section from the intrusion of the endocarp, 

 embryo large, curved, with two narrowly lanceolate widely sepa- 

 rated cotyledons lying in the centre of abundant endosperm. 



Habitat. This climbing shrub grows commonly on the eastern 

 side of the Indian Peninsula; also in Ceylon and some of the 

 Malayan Islands, unless the plants from these parts are to be 

 referred, as is done by Mr. Miers, to different species. There are 

 specimens in the gardens at Kew, Chelsea, and the Regent's 

 Park, but they have not flowered. 



Miers, Contrib. Bot., iii, p. 51 ; Hook, f., PI. Brit. Ind., i, p. 185 ; 

 LindL, PL Med., p. 371. 



Official Part and Name. COCCULUS INDICUS ; the fruit dried of 

 Anamirta Cocculus, W. et. A. (I. P.). Not official in either the 

 British Pharmacopoeia, or the Pharmacopoeia of the United 

 States. 



Commerce. Cocculus Indicus is imported from Bombay and 

 Madras. It was formerly brought to Europe by way of the 

 Levant, and hence the names of Levant nut and Levant shell, by 

 which it used to be designated. The amount consumed in this 

 country is not accurately known, but the average imports annually 

 are probably not less than 50,000 Ibs. 



General Characters and Composition. As met with in com- 

 merce, the dried fruit, which is commonly known as Cocculus 

 Indicus, is somewhat kidney- shaped, and generally less than J an 

 inch in length, or about the size of a small hazel nut. It is 

 covered externally by a thin, blackish-brown, wrinkled skin, 



